No. 40. 



ABSTRACT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 



February 19tli, 1907. 

 Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bt., Vice-President, in tlie Chair. 



The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been 

 made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January 

 1907. 



Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major, F.Z.S., exhibited remains of a Bear 

 from the superficial deposits of a cavern in the mountains of 

 Corsica, where Bears, though now extinct, were foi'merly nume- 

 rous, at least vip to the sixteenth centui-y. Despite the fact that 

 no truly fossil Bears were as yet known from Corsica, Dr. Forsyth 

 Major considered the Corsican Bear to have been autochthonous, 

 whilst in his opinion the recent Mammals of Corsica (and Sardinia) 

 had been, almost without exception, introduced by human agency. 

 In any case they could not be adduced as proofs of a recent con- 

 nection of those islands with either of the neighboui-ing continents. 



In a paper on English Domestic Cats, Mr. R, I, Pocock 

 urged that the surest basis for their classification and the most 

 satisfactory clue to their descent was furnished by the two dis- 

 tinct patterns found in so-called Tabby Cats. In one type the 

 pattern consisted of narrow vertical stripes ; in the other of longi- 

 tudinal or obliquely longitudinal stripes which, on the sides of 

 the body, tended to assume a spiral or subcirculai- arrangement 

 characteristic of the " blotched " Tabby. This distinction was 

 long ago pointed out by Blyth. 



One or the other of these types was to be found in Cats of almost 

 all breeds, whether " Persian," '' Short-haired," or " Manx." There 

 appeared to be no intermediate stages between the two. The Cats 

 of the " striped " type were no doubt descended from the European 

 Wild Cat and the North- African Wild Cat ; but the origin of 



* This Abstract is published by the Society at 3 Hanover Square, London, 

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