RELATIONSHIP WITH FELIS DOMESTICA. 79 



Isidore Geoffkoy St.-Hilaiee, however, in his 

 ' Histoire Naturelle gen^rale des Regnes Organiques,' 

 1862, states that De Blainville, after a careful exami- 

 nation of a skull from an ancient Egyptian Cat and 

 also of recent skulls of Felis maniculata, agrees 

 with him that Eiippell's Cat is the original of our 

 Domestic Cat. 



" Ce Chat," says Isidore Geoffroy St.-IIilaire, "a ete 

 decouvert a I'etat sauvage en Nubie par M. Riippell; 

 on I'a depuis retrouve en Abyssinie, oii il est a la 

 fois sauvage et domestique. Temrainck et le savant 

 coUaborateur de M. Riippell, M. Cretzschmar, I'ont 

 decrit presque simultanement sous le nom de Chat 

 gante [Felis maniculata) en le signalant comme 

 I'espece primordiale ou le type de nos races do- 

 mestiques. Cette determination a ete admise et 

 confirmee en France, par Blainville, apres Texamen 

 comparatif d'un crane antique rapporte d'Egypte par 

 Geoffroy St.-Hilaire et de plusieurs cranes recants des 

 Chats gante, sauvage et domestique." 



Sir W. Jardine (' The Nat. Library,' vol. ii. 1834) 

 believes with Riippell and others that the Felis 

 maniculata is the origin of our Domestic Cat; he 

 says : — " Although our opinion coincides with that of 

 the above-mentioned authorities, and we think that 

 we are indebted to the superstition of the ancient 

 Egyptians for having domesticated the species de- 

 scribed by Riippell ; we have no doubt since its 

 introduction to this country, and more particularly 

 to the north of Scotland, there has been occasional 

 crossing with our own native species." 



Dr. Alfred Nehring (' Verhandlungen der Berliner 

 anthropologischen Gesellschaft,' July 1889) forms the 

 opinion that the Domestic Cat has two progenitors, 



