INTERBREEDING OF THE TWO RACES. 89 



the Domestic Cat had bred with the Wild Cat of that 

 country, and he remarks that in these mixed unions 

 the female was, as a rule, from the Domestic variety : — 

 " Nous n'avons pas chez les mammiferes d'exemples 

 authentiques de croisement fecond entre deux animaux 

 sauvages &, I'etat de liberte, mais nous en connaissons 

 plusieurs entre un animal devenu momentanement 

 libre et un animal sauvage, comme entre le chien et 

 le loup, le chien et le chacal, le chat et plusieurs de 

 ses congeneres, le cochon et le sanglier," &c. 



E. Latard (' Cat. of the S. African Museum,' 1862) 

 says that the Domestic Cat in South Africa breeds 

 freely with the "Wild Cat of that district {Felis 

 caffra), and he informed Mr. Darwin that a pair of 

 these hybrids (1) have become perfectly tame and 

 much attached to the lady who brought them up, and 

 Mr. Fry has found that these hybrids are fertile. 



In India the various wild species have bred freely 

 Avith the Domestic variety. 



Brian Hodgson (' Journal of the Asiatic Society ') 

 says : — " The Domestic Cat is as common in Nepal as 

 elsewhere, and has no peculiarity worthy of note : 

 judging from its marks, I should conjecture that it is 

 derived from F. m'palensis ; if so, it has lost in domesti- 

 cation the fine ground-colour of that beautiful species." 



Walter Elliot (J. As. Soc. xvi. p. 247) also 

 states that Felis chaus interbreeds with the Domestic 

 Cat, and the oifspring of these has the thick tail and 

 the brown bar inside the forearm characteristic of 

 F. chaus; he has often noticed the same marking 

 in the Domestic Cats of India. Bltth states that the 

 Domestic Cat of the Afghans is very similar to that 

 of the Himalayan districts, running into all sorts 

 of varieties as to colour as they do with us, although 



