442 Proceedings qftJw Asiatic Society. [No. 5. 



" If the Chaus is a wild species/' remarks Dr. Scott, "so also is this 

 spotted Cat ; and for one Chaus in this district [Hansi], probably you 

 would find ten of the spotted kind. The Chaus, you will find in woods 

 and jungle, and about stations ; but the spotted Cat seems to be found 

 invariably in open sandy plains, where the field Eat must be its principal 

 food. I hardly ever remember seeing it in what could be called jungle or 

 even in grass. One of these spotted Cats lived for a long time under my 

 haystack, and I believe it to have been the produce of a tame Cat by a 

 wild one.* I have also lately seen two or three domestic Cats spotted 

 precisely like the skin I sent you : they have generally some white about 

 them ; but doubtless there are some without white. The wild I have seen 

 of half a dozen shades of colour; and you also frequently see in these 

 spotted Cats a tendency to run to stripes, especially upon the limbs." 



On comparing the skin now sent with Gen. Hardwicke's figure, I feel 

 quite satisfied that this is the species intended ; although the figure is 

 most misleading, and gives the idea of a totally different animal ; indeed 

 it might pass for a bad representation of the S. African Serval ! The spots 

 are too round and not sufficiently numerous ; and the clavate form of the 

 tail is wrong altogether.- Nevertheless, I follow Sir W. Jardine in refer- 

 ring that exceedingly bad figure to the present species, in opposition to 

 the more recently expressed opinion of Dr. Gray ; and it is not at all 

 probable that anything more like it remains to be discovered in this coun- 

 try. The figure in the ' Naturalist's Library' is better, and at once recog- 

 nizable ; but the tail is much too long, and the whole might bear a warmer 

 colouring with advantage. It by no means represents a handsome exam- 

 ple of the species.f 



* Vide XVII, 247 and 559, for notices of F. chaus and F. rubiginosa inter- 

 breeding with domestic Cats. 



f Of two supposed wild types of the domestic Cats of India, obtained by Mr. 

 Theobald in the Punjab Salt Range (two specimens of each of them), neither can 

 be referred to the F. ornata : they have much more the appearance of domestic 

 Cats ; and so they undoubtedly would have, were they really two aboriginal types 

 which are still strongly indicated by the domestic Cats even of Bengal. 



One is the streaked or spotted type, the colouring and markings of which are not 

 much unlike those of the European wild Cat (F. sylvestris, Brisson) ; only more 

 distinct, and the transverse streaks are more broken into spots, especially towards 

 the hinder part of the body : the fur, however, is short, and the tail slender and of 

 uniform apparent thickness to the end ; shewing a series of rings and a black tip : 

 ears slightly rufescent externally, but infuscated, passing to black at tip, where 



