PREFACE. 



Some few years ago, when reading a review of Knox's 

 ' Autumns on the Spey,' I came upon the following 

 passage : — " There is no British mammal, or reputed 

 British mammal, of whose character, locality, and 

 even existence we are so totally ignorant as the 

 Wild Cat." This surprised me, particularly as it 

 was from the pen of a well-known writer on natural 

 history ; so, with the view of giving a somewhat more 

 connected history of this animal than is usually found 

 in books on natural history, more especially as it was 

 the only example of the Feline family indigenous to 

 Britain, and on the point of becoming extinct, I 

 commenced collecting together all available informa- 

 tion relating to this subject, both on the Continent 

 and in this country. 



I did not expect to find any difficulty in being able to 

 define the Wild Cat (Felis catus) as a distinct species. 

 The task, however, was not so easy as I anticipated, 

 for I found that the characteristics relied on by most 

 authors as specific were not persistent, were at times 

 absent, and were also often present in the Domestic 



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