THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
The fishing or viverrine cat is a long-bodied, short-limbed, 
rather large species, striped and spotted in lines somewhat 
like a civet, which occurs wherever there are watery swamps 
from Nepal to China, and in Ceylon, but not in the Malayan 
Fishing islands. It is said to feed on fish, and on the 
sii snails and fresh-water mussels, but no one knows 
just how the fish are obtained. It also catches birds, lizards, 
and snakes, and comes out of its jungle now and then to terrorize 
the neighborhood by carrying off not only sheep, calves, and dogs, 
but pickaninnies that have been left unguarded — even break- 
ing into huts to do so. Everybody credits it with willingness 
and ability to whip its weight (and more) in any sort of wild- 
cats you can bring. It will attack a man on sight if he is in its 
road to liberty, or if it happens to feel like it; and one which 
Blyth tried to keep broke through a partition the very first 
night and killed a leopard double its size in the next room. 
One hesitates to believe that a cat which makes its part of 
the jungle as interesting for its enemies as that one takes 
any large part of its daily bread in the form of fishes and 
snails. 
The leopard cat, or Bengal cat, is a much smaller species, 
which avoids the swamps and keeps to the forested hills, and 
Bengal is to be met with as far east as the Philippines. It 
cot is only about two feet long, with another foot of 
tail length; and is so precisely like a little leopard in appearance 
that it is frequently mistaken for a young one. It, also, is 
noted for boldness and savagery, and though often trapped 
can rarely be brought, even as a kitten, into friendly relations 
with its keeper. Finally, India and Ceylon have the little 
“rusty”? cat, — smallest of its tribe, — which is usually yellowish 
red but often gray, with stripes on the face and black spots 
elsewhere, except on the tail. It lurks mainly in 
tall grass and thickets, and is one of the quickest 
creatures on earth. Dr. Jerdon’™ relates an incident illus- 
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Rusty Cat. 
