CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 185 



the Eastern kind wandered out into the forest, as is still their wont, 

 and entered into intimate relations with the male wild cats of the 

 district, their progeny, though perhaps at first a little less docile, 

 preferred the comfortable home of the mother to the precarious 

 existence of the father. Yet the female half-breeds again and 

 again strayed into the woods, became impregnated by the wild 

 cats, and returned to domesticity. Thus at the present day the 

 ordinary type of domestic cat in the British Islands, and in 

 all the British possessions or daughter nations abroad, the 

 domestic cat of Northern France, Germany, Central and Northern 

 Europe, has more of the blood of Felis catus in its veins than of 

 Felis caffra. On the other hand, the author has noticed that 

 domestic cats imported into Eastern Africa (for example) con- 

 stantly strayed into the woods in the breeding season and 

 interbred with Felis caffra. 



The wild cat has existed in Britain since the Pleistocene 

 Epoch. As a species, in fact, it was co-existent in England with 

 the mammoth, the lion, the hyaena, the reindeer, and the hippo- 

 potamus. I am not aware that its fossil remains have ever been 

 found in Scotland. It has never been an inhabitant of Ireland 

 at any time, and the reports of wild cats in that country simply 

 refer to the domesticated cat which has returned to a feral 

 condition, and which by its descent (already described) from the 

 wild cat of England and Scotland resembles the wild species 

 so closely, except in the length and shape of the tail, that con- 

 fusion on the subject was excusable. It is possible that the wild 

 cat is a relatively recent immigrant into Scotland, having gone up 

 north together with the big cattle, the red deer, the roe deer, 

 and the wolf, owing to the gradual withdrawal of the ice, and the 

 attacks on wild beasts made by the more numerous human 

 inhabitants of South Britain. Its fossil remains dating back to 

 the Pleistocene are abundant in English and Welsh formations. 

 It remained an inhabitant of most parts of forested England 

 down to a relatively recent period — say four centuries ago. 

 Owing to its ravages on flocks and poultry it was detested 

 by the country folk, and as soon as firearms came into general 



