CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 183 



stripes being more broken up and fused into the grayish-yellow 

 colour of the fur. 



The wild cat probably breeds twice in the twelve months. 

 There are from four to five kittens in a litter. The first 

 litter is born in the early spring and the second in the autumn. 



This creature is, of course, purely carnivorous in the choice of 

 its food, and will attack and kill prey as large as a roebuck fawn. 

 It also kills and eats lambs, and, of course, large quantities of 

 rabbits, hares, grouse, pheasants, wood-pigeons, and other birds, 

 besides fish which may be stranded on the banks of a river 

 or a lake. It is an exceedingly fierce animal, and practically 

 untamable in captivity. It is a more forest-haunting creature 

 than the allied forms that prefer the open steppe and desert ; 

 in fact, the wild cat is probably found nowhere far from trees, 

 and it not only pursues a good deal of its prey (squirrels and 

 birds) up and down the branches, but generally makes its 

 breeding nest in some hollow or fork of the trunk, or even 

 in the large nest of woven sticks made by a hawk, a crow, 

 or a heron. 



The wild cat of Britain and Central Europe belongs to 

 the Catine group of the genus Felis, the members of which 

 are all relatively small, with rounded heads, short muzzles, 

 and a tendency towards a tabby or dull coloration occasioned by 

 the relatively long fur, and characterised by the absence of bright 

 reu or yellow tints and definite jet-black markings. Although 

 the tail in the African form {Felis caffrd) is fairly long and slender, 

 the general tendency in this group is towards the development 

 of a short and very bushy tail. This group includes (amongst 

 others) the aforementioned Felis caffra, the Wild Cat, Pallas's Cat 

 (Feiis matiul), the Indian and Central Asian Desert Waved Cats 

 {Felis ornata, F. shawiana, and F. torquata), and probably the 

 ColocoUo and Pampas Cats of South America ; possibly also the 

 Leopard Cat and Rusty Spotted Cat of India. 



The author has inflicted on his readers this somewhat tedious 

 enumeration of the allies of the wild cat in order that he may 

 focus their interest on the origin of the domestic cat. Like the 



