74 THE WILD CAT OF EUEOPE. 



PERIOD OF GESTATION. 



Another supposed specific diiFerence between the 

 two races has been the length of the Period of Gesta- 

 tion. The Wild Cat is stated to go with young from 

 67 to 68 days; the Domestic Cat from 55 to 63 

 days. 



Mr. Heneage Cocks procured two Wild Cats, male 

 and female, from Guisachan, Ross-shire, which he 

 kept in captivity for some four or five years. These 

 bred every year for four successive years. " My 

 old pair of Wild Cats," he writes, " have bred again 

 this year (1876), and the gestation was to within 

 an hour or two of the same time as before, i. e., 10 

 hours less than 68 days ; is it jumping at conclusions 

 in too great a hun'y to suppose that this is the regular 

 time 1 " 



Heneage Cocks also noticed that the kittens of 

 the Wild Cats at birth were considerably larger than 

 those of the Domestic Cat at the same period. 



There is no other record, so far as I know, of 

 Wild Cats breeding in confinement in this country ; 

 and there is no record of Wild Cats breeding in a 

 state of nature which can be entirely depended upon. 



Owing to their nocturnal habits and wandering 

 propensities the precise period our Domestic Cats 

 go with young is not easily ascertained. Most 

 naturalists who have written on the subject give 

 the time as 55 or 56 days. Fleming and Donovan, 

 however, state the period of gestation is 63 days. 

 Recent inquiries amongst breeders of Cats have not 

 resulted in clearing up the discrepancy, and they give 

 the margin from 55 to 03 days. 



