348 Voyage Scientifique en Moree. 



tral parts of the Morea, where they prey chiefly on partridges; but at 

 some seasons they approach the isolated houses and seize the poultry. 

 The species is said to resemble that of the centre of Europe, but 

 in some degree to assimilate to one figured in the voyage of Belanger 

 to the East Indies, and called Felis rubiginosa, which they say has 

 spots on the breast and sides. We have carefully examined both the 

 plates, which are quite unlike each other. The cat of Belanger is so 

 badly represented that it is necessary to be told what animal it is 

 meant to represent, and considerable doubts exist as to its being a 

 genuine species, or more than the common cat of Madagascar. 



The plate in the present work is much better, and is totally differ- 

 ent from the other. From the looseness of the description, we are 

 disposed to think that no very great attention has been paid to the 

 subject, and that the true species of the Morea remains to be more 

 accurately described. We have a strong suspicion that it may turn 

 out to be identical with a cat seen by the writer of this notice, in the 

 Sierra de Cuenca in Spain. This species, of which he has only seen the 

 individual specimen on which the observation was made, differs to- 

 tally from that of the north and centre of Europe. The fur was red- 

 dish, like some of the lynxes of the Alps, the back and head broadly 

 striped, and the tail barred with black. The greatest peculiarity was 

 in the ears, which were short and rounded, as if they had been clip- 

 ped, and they scarcely stood above the fur. The head was round and 

 the muzzle short, unlike the lynx and caracal, and the animal was 

 possessed of very great strength. 



The zones or parallel of these localities nearly correspond with 

 each other, and it is very probable, when a more accurate account is 

 given of the cat of the Peloponnesus, that it may turn out to be si- 

 milar to that of Cuenca — respecting which we have written to Spain, 

 and hope, when the country is in a more tranquil state, to have some 

 further account. 



The lynx is not uncommon, and it is protected by the prejudices 

 of the people, who believe that it is the deadly foe of the wolf, and 

 assists in defending their flocks ! Most probably this popular error 

 proceeds from their being seen engaged in conflict, to defend the prey 

 they had taken, which the stronger and equally rapacious brute was 

 desirous of appropriating to itself. We are left in ignorance of the 

 species, from which it may be inferred that it is the common lynx of 

 the centre and north of Europe. We should rather have expected to 

 hear of the spotted variety, which we found to abound in the Sierra 

 Morena, Felis pardina, or a variety of it ? This, the most beautiful 



