THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



GEOGEAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The European Wild Cat had an extensive geo- 

 graphical range, including Great Britain, France, 

 the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, 

 Hungary, Poland, Transylvania, Galicia, the Caucasus 

 as far as the Caspian, Southern Eussia, Italy, Spain, 

 Greece, Eoumelia, Bulgaria, Servia, Turkey in 

 Europe, and some parts of Northern Asia. 



Its favourite haunts were forests, vs'ith masses of 

 rocks or cliffs interspersed with trees. In the crevices 

 of these rocks or the hollow boles of the trees it 

 made its lair. 



Abel Chapman ('Wild Spain') found them on 

 the shores of what he calls the Bsetican Wilderness, 

 amongst the giant heather, bamboos, and wild gorse, 

 where their prey, in the shape of bird-life, was 

 abundant ; in the scrub-clad plains bounding the 

 Marisma — the haunt of the Flamingoes — amongst 

 the rabbits which frequented the open spaces ; in 

 the immense cork-woods, amidst the tree-heaths and 

 arbutus which border the stagnant pools on the Cistus 

 plains ; and amongst the cane-brakes and bamboos in 

 Donana. 



They breed, he says, in the sierras in crags and 

 rabbit-burrows, and in plains the young are often 

 produced in nests built in trees or among the tall 

 bamboos in the cane-brakes. 



Chapman states that the young Wild Cats are 

 quite the most ferocious and utterly untamable beasts 

 of which he had any experience. " The mixture of 

 fear and fury they exhibit in captivity is inde- 

 scribable." 



