86 THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



INTERBEEEDING OF THE TWO KACES. 



Daewin and all the later writers bear testimony to 

 the various races of Wild and Domestic Cats inter- 

 breeding Avith each other, and that this has not 

 interfered with their fertility, which has remained 

 unimpaired in their offspring. 



Although it has been long known that the 

 Wild Cat has bred with the Domestic Cat, this was 

 strenuously denied by some writers, who believed 

 that the two were distinct species, and not varieties, 

 and that if by chance they did breed together, the 

 offspring were hybrids and non-fertile. 



Professor Huxley defines Hybrids as crosses between 

 two species, the offspring being, as a rule, non-fertile ; 

 Mongrels as crosses between two races, the offspring 

 hevaQ fertile. 



Professor Mivart, in his work on the Cat, c. xii. 

 p. 391, asks the question, "What is the difference 

 between a species and a variety "? " " Now^ the various 

 breeds of Cats," he says, " such as are enumerated in 

 the first chapter, are called ' varieties,' while a lion 

 and a tiger are not called two ' varieties,' but two 

 ' species.' The term species may have two mean- 

 ings — one morphological, the other physiological. 

 According to the first of these, it signifies a group 

 of animals which are alike in appearance. If two 

 groups of animals differ markedly in appearance, and 

 if no transitional forms are known which bridge over, 

 as it were, the difference thus existing between them, 

 then such two groups are reckoned as two distinct 

 species according to the first or morphological signi- 

 fication of that term, i. e. they are morphological 

 species. The second use of the word ' species ' is to 



