FEMS CHATJS. Ill 



greyhounds in com and stubble fields, but I have seen it in date groves, 

 though never in jungle. At Hissar it is almost always found among 

 the low sand hiUs, occasionally in bare fields, usually in the same ground 

 as the desert fox (Vulpes leucopus). Here it appears to feed chiefly on the 

 jerboa-rat (Oerbillus indicus), so abundant in the sandy tract there. 



I have followed Blyth, in his recent Synopsis, in giving this species as 

 the F. torquata of F. Cuvier. In his Catalogue, he assigns Colonel Sykes' 

 F. torquata also to this species, but in a recent letter to me he writes, that 

 he is inclined to consider Sykes' cat as either a domestic cat run wild, or 

 a hybrid. Colonel Sykes states of his species, that it " frequents the grass 

 roofs of houses, thick hedges, and obscure places in cantonments, shun- 

 ning the face of man and the light ; but it is constantly on the alert at 

 night. It is a pest from the damage it does in poultry yards in the 

 Dekhan." These habits are so perfectly opposed to those of our wild cat, 

 which is constantly abroad all the day in open ground, and whose habitat 

 is so different, that I can only conclude with Blyth, that it is merely 

 a domestic cat run wild, many of which are found in all cantonments. It 

 may indeed be a hybrid between the spotted and the domestic cat. The 

 description by Gray of F. inconspicuus differs a good deal, and it is said to 

 have a long tail. The figure in Jardine's Naturalist's Library (F. servalina), 

 is not a bad representation of the wild cat. Blyth formerly gave Gray's 

 Chaus servalinus as a synonym of this cat, but now refers it to F. 



The next cat is not a typical Lynx, and it has been separated generically 

 as Chaus, Gray. 



115. Fells chaus. 



GuLDENSTADT— P. CuviBE, Mamm, 3, pi. 32.— Blyth, Cat. 186, and 

 Synops. 19. — F. affinis, Gbay. Hardwicke, Hi. Ind. Zool. fig. — F. kutas, 

 Pbaeson.— J", {lynchus) erythrotis, Hodgson.— Jl Jacquemontii, Is. Geof- 

 FROY, figd. Jacqtjemont. Voy. Tpl.— Chaus lylims, Gbay.— Zaios, Beng. 

 and R.—Jangli-hillt, B..—Sanierdl, B.—Birka of Bhagulpore hill tribes. 

 —Mant bek, Gaa.—Kada bek or Sella hek of Waddars,— Jfota lahn 

 manjur, Mahr.—Maoga, Mahr. of the ghats.— /Ma pilli, Tel— Cherru 

 pull, Mai. 



The Common Junole Cat. 



Z/e«cr.— Yellowish-gray, more or less dark and unspotted, approaching 



