IV PREFACE. 



Cat. Moreover, on a careful examination of a number 

 of examples of the Wild Cat of the present time 

 I found many indications of a mixture of the two 

 races. 



It would seem as if the original Wild Cat, as it 

 existed in the olden days, has been almost extermi- 

 nated throughout Europe, and that its place has 

 been taken by a mongrel race, the result of continual 

 interbreeding during many centuries (2000 years) 

 of the Wild and the imported Domestic Cat, whose 

 original ancestor was probably the Caffer Cat {Felis 

 caffra). 



I am greatly indebted to the Authorities of the 

 Natural History Department of the British Museum, 

 especially to Mr. Oldfield Thomas, also to Professor 

 Stewart of the College of Surgeons, to Dr. Benham 

 and Mr. Goodrich of the Oxford University Museum, 

 to Professor Alfred Newton and Mr. Bateson of the 

 University Museum, Cambridge, to the Eev. Albert 

 Watson, Mr. Heneage Cocks, Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 Dr. J. Anderson, Mr. F. E. Beddard, Lord Lilford, 

 Professor Mivart, and to many other friends for the 

 assistance so freely and generously accorded to me 

 during my investigations. 



I am also under very great obligations to Dr. Alfred 

 Nehring, of the Natural History Department of the 

 College of Agriculture, Berlin, for the measurements 

 of a number of the skulls of Felis catusferus in that 

 Museum. 



To M. Julien Eraipont, Professor of Palaeontology 



