1907.] ENGLISH DOMESTIC CATS. 149 



F. sylvestris, and of accounting for the origin of the breed, seems 

 never to have been fully realised, or, if realised, never seriously- 

 faced. And doubtless a contributory cause to this result has 

 been the artificial character of the classification of Domestic Cats 

 adopted by fanciers, which gives emphasis to valueless features 

 and obscures the fundamental importance of the pattern. 



2. On the Characters and Names of the Two Tyjjesof Domestic Cat 

 and the Name of the European Wild Cat. 



In the foregoing and following pages the European Wild Cat 

 is referred to as Felis sylvestris. This requii-es explanation, since 

 the species in question has, by almost common consent, been 

 hitherto called Felis catus. 



In my opinion there is no possibility of evading the conclusion 

 that the Cat to which Linnyeus gave the name catus was not the 

 European Wild Cat, but the Domestic Cat of the blotched Tabby 

 kind. In the 10th edition of the ' Systema,' 1758, accepted as the 

 starting-point in zoological nomenclature, Felis cattcs is character- 

 ised in such terms as to leave no room for doubt on this head. In 

 the first place, there is a back reference to the ' Fauna Suecica,' 

 1746, whereof Felis catus it is said "habitat indomibiis; cicurata: 

 exoticce originis." In the second place, the diagnosis in the 

 ' Systema ' runs as follows : — " Felis caudata, elongata ; corpore 

 fasciis nigricantibus ; dorsalibus longitiidinalibus trihus ; laterali- 

 bus spiralibus." The spiral lateral stripes are obviously those that 

 form the so-called " circle " or " horseshoe " characteristic of the 

 blotched " Tabby " ; and the three doi^sal longitudinal stripes are 

 also typical of that animal. This descrijDtion is totally inapplicable 

 to the European Wild Cat, which moreover does not occur in 

 Scandinavia, and was apparently unknown to Linnaeus, except 

 from books. It is equally inapplicable to the " Striped " race of 

 Domestic Cats. On the other hand, it exactly fits the blotched 

 Tabby Domestic Cat, and was quite likely taken from a specimen 

 lying on Linnseus's hearthrug at the time. 



There is no doubt from the context and the bibliography in 

 the 10th ed. of the ' Systema ' that Linnseus believed this Cat 

 and the European Wild Cat to be the same species of animal ; 

 but that error does not in any way affect the certainty of the 

 conclusion that he knew only the domestic blotched "Tabby" and 

 described it as catus. 



The name " domestica " must, I think, be discarded as a 

 synonym of catus, since both Schreber and Erxleben, the two 

 earliest post-Limipean authors to use that term, quote under the 

 heading domestica Linnseus's diagnosis of catits. And since all 

 the so-called Tortoise-shell Cats that I have seen belong to this 

 type, the name hispanica Erxl. may also be placed amongst the 

 synonyms of catus ; vulgaris Fischer is also a synonym. 



The name " catus" then, is no longer admissible for the 

 European Wild Cat. For this species there are two names 



