88 THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



in our houses : we have seen many Cats closely 

 resembling the Wild Cat, and one or two that were 

 very tame, which could scarcely be distinguished 

 from it." 



D. G. Elliot ('Monograph of the Felidae ') says that 

 the Domestic Cat crosses readily with any or all of 

 the wild species with which they come in contact, 

 and the hybrids are fertile, and these are always met 

 with in countries where Wild and Domestic Cats are 

 found. 



The late John Edwaed Gray (' Cat. Carn. Mamm. 

 in British Museum,' 1869), writing on Felis catus, 

 remarks that it is said to breed with the Domestic 

 Cat, and that the skull of the hybrid, as well as the 

 coloration of the fur, is more or less modified by 

 interbreeding. 



Haeeison Weie (' Our Cats,' 1889) states that 

 in 1871 and 1872 a Wild Cat, aged three years, was 

 exhibited at the Crystal Palace Cat Show by the Earl 

 of Hopetoun, also some hybrid kittens, the father of 

 which was a long-haired cat, the mother a sandy by 

 a wild cat out of a long-haired tabby, which proves, 

 if proof were wanting, that such hybrids breed freely 

 either with hybrids, or with the Domestic or the Wild 

 Cat. 



Edwaed Donovan (' Natural History of British 

 Quadrupeds ') states that these animals (Wild Cats) 

 will always associate with the Domestic Cats when 

 the latter stray into the woods in quest of mates, and 

 produce young, which is an obvious proof that they 

 are both from the same parent stock. 



IsiDOEK Geoffeot St.-Hilaiee (Hist. Nat. gen. 

 tom. iii. p-. 177 et seq.) states that he was informed 

 by M. Gyon, surgeon to the army of Algiers, that 



