32 THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



bourhood of Paris, and was preserved in the Cabinet 

 of Natural History. 



Dr. Chen'u ('Hist. Nat.' 1855, vol. ii. p. 187) says 

 that the Wild Cat has become extremely rare in 

 France during the last sixty years, and is now only 

 found in some of the great woods in the Partie Meri- 

 dionale. M. Paul Geevais, writing in the same year, 

 states that it is to be found in considerable numbers in 

 the forests of the different Departments. M. Eenest 

 Olivier (' Essai sur la Faune de I'Allier,' 1877) 

 reports that Felis catus is still to be found in some of 

 the woods and forests of the Department, but in 

 diminished numbers; and the same author ('Faune 

 du Doubs,' 1883) says that it is occasionally found 

 in the forests, but more frequently in the higher 

 mountains. 



I have lately examined two skins labelled "Wild 

 Cats sent from the Department of the Haute-Marne, 

 near the Yosges ; from the form of the skulls and 

 the absence of many of the characteristic marks of 

 Felis catus, with the exception of the fur, which is 

 very thick and close (a necessary result of feral life), 

 I believe they are the offspring of Domestic Cats 

 which have run wild. 



In Belgium. — In the western portion of the slate 

 plateau of the Lower Rhine, extending over portions 

 of Belgium, France, and Rhenish Prussia, commonly 

 known as the Ardennes, in which are large tracts of 

 oak and beech forests, the Wild Cat, Avrites M. de 

 Selys-Longchamps (' Faune Beige,' premiere partie, 

 1842), is not very rare, and is occasionally found in the 

 woods of Condroz and in the Forest of Soigne ; but it 

 must not, he sa s, be confounded with the Domestic 

 Cat which has taken to the woods. 



