10 THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



Period ; and although they will not say, owing to 

 the very fragmentary evidence, that F. caffer also 

 inhabited Britain, yet from the similarity of the jaw 

 found in Bleadon Cave to that of F. caffer, it almost 

 amounts to a certainty. Indeed they say : " There is 

 nothing unreasonable in the suggestion of a Cat now 

 found only in Africa having once ranged over Europe, 

 since the Spotted Hyaena, the Hippopotamus, and 

 the Panther were members of the Pleistocene fauna, 

 as well as being now associated with Felis caffer in 

 Africa." 



If this supposition be correct, it would seem that 

 the smaller species was enabled to survive through- 

 out Europe during all the geological changes, owing 

 to its natural food, in the shape of the leporine and 

 other rodent forms, continuing to exist, as, according 

 to Owen, there is no difference between the fossil bones 

 of the Pleistocene species of Lepus and Arvicola and 

 those of the present time ; while the larger species, 

 from some cause as yet unexplained, became extinct. 



From the measurements of the bones and skulls, it 

 would appear that one of the Wild Cats of the 

 Pleistocene age was a smaller animal than Felis 

 sylvestris of Gesner or Felis catus of Linnaeus. 

 M. JuLiEN Feaipont has forwarded to me the measure- 

 ments of eight skulls which have been found in 

 the deposits of the caverns of Engis and Tngihoul, 

 near Liege, Belgium, intermingled with the bones 

 of the Mammoth, Ehinoceros, &c. ; these measure- 

 ments range from 69 to 77 mm. in basal length, 

 and from 39 to 43 mm. in breadth over the cranium ; 

 while the skulls of Felis catus (the Wild Cat of 

 historic times) range from 78 to 89 mm. in basal 

 length, and from 44 to 52 mm. in cranial breadth 



