WILD CATS. 211 



ineighbourhood of human habitations is not to be wondered 

 at, nor that it should make off now and then with a lamb or 

 5ome other toothsome and not too heavy domestic quarry, 

 but that it should, even when Acting together in a pair, drag 

 ■off a brace of ewes in a single night is a matter of some 

 surprise. Yet such a fact is recorded in " The Royal Natural 

 History," edited by one of our best naturalists, Richard 

 Lydekker. A still more surprising story tells how one of 

 these animals broke through a thin partition behind which a 

 tame female leopard was confined, and notwithstanding the 

 disparity in size, the leopard being twice as big, the result of 

 the fight which followed was that the cat killed its opponent. 

 Ordinarily, however, the fishing cat lives on the products 

 ■of swamps and marshes, taking fish, molluscs, small mammals, 

 birds, and even reptiles. Anything that comes along serves 

 as "grist to the mill." 



Two other species of cats found in the Tibetan and 

 Turkestan portions of the Chinese Empire are allied to the 

 desert cat of India. They are known as F. Shawiana, and 

 F. torquata. The former belongs to the districts of Yarkand 

 and Kashgar, the latter to the Tibetan border of Nipal. It 

 is believed that some of these are the descendants of tame 

 cats run wild, the domestic tabbies of the neighbourhood 

 frequently breeding with some of the wild ones. Some 

 authorities on the other hand think it possible that here we 

 have the particular wild species which originklly gave us the 

 first domestic breed. Geographically there is a good deal 

 to be said for this theory. 



Throughout southern Siberia and Mongolia, probably 

 also in Manchuria and some parts of northern China there 

 may be found F. manttl, usually described as Pallas's cat. 

 Its northern habitat would suggest differences between it and 

 those of the south. Those differences are found. The fur 

 suits the climate. It is soft, thick, and very long. The tail, 

 too, is very bushy. The colours probably vary somewhat 

 with the season, running from a buff-yellow with darker 

 marking on the back to silvery grey. The tail is ringed, and" 

 there are stripes along the loins. In size Pallas's cat is 

 practically that of the domestic kind, and it is supposed to 

 be the original progenitor of all the Angora and Persian 

 cats now tamed. In a large portion of Asia it takes the 

 place of the common wild cat of Europe. 



That species, F. catus, is the last on our list. A 

 specimen of the wild cat, as found in Scotland, was once 

 killed measuring 45 inches in length. It was common in 

 ■olden times throughout the whole of Great Britain, but 

 is now found only in the wilder parts of Scotland. Thomas 

 Edward has no record of having met with one in any 



