THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
western India. Its habitat is shared by the Indian wildcat, 
which resembles the European one but is smaller and more 
reddish; and by the more familiar, short-tailed jungle cat, 
or “chaus,” which is sand color, more or less dark and unspotted, 
all markings being very obscure and variable and most evident 
in the young. This chaus ranges all over India and Ceylon, 
and thence westward through Persia and Asia Minor to the 
Delta of the Nile, where, as elsewhere, it is partial to low, marshy 
ground, sugar-cane fields, and similar thick cover where it 
preys largely on game birds. 
Special attention has been paid to this group of Oriental 
wildcats, because they and some others there less noticeable 
seem very closely akin; and also because to them 
we must look for the parentage of the Indian domes- 
tic breeds. Most if not all of these wildcats will interbreed 
and will cross with domesticated breeds, producing fertile 
offspring. This reproductive faculty extends to both the Euro- 
pean and Egyptian wildcats, which Hamilton*” long ago 
suggested were derived from a common ancestor. Professor 
G. Martorelli, of Milan, took up the subject more lately, and 
having studied not only the present structure and the mummy 
skeletons, but also fossil remains, came to the conclusion that 
all of the foregoing species are offshoots of a stock now nearly 
represented by the Egyptian cat. Dr. Lydekker has sum- 
marized his results thus: — 
Kinship. 
“Tf the views of Professor Martorelli be found substantially correct, 
the following will be the lines of evolution: Firstly, we have the ancestral 
types of the Egyptian cat (F. ibyca), inhabiting northeastern Africa and a 
considerable part of Europe during the Pleistocene, and perhaps a part of 
the Pliocene, period. From this original species originated in the Eastern 
side of the world the Mediterranean cat (F. mediterranea) and the wild- 
cat (F. catus). When man became dominant, he produced the European 
domesticated breed, either from the typical Egyptian cat or from its va- 
riety, the Mediterranean cat, and this original domestic breed soon became 
crossed with its immediate cousin, the wildcat. On the other hand, in 
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