44 DOMESTIC CATS. 



Chap. I. 



mingled : it is certain that cats cross readily with various wild 

 species, and it would appear that the character of the domestic 

 breeds has, at least in some cases, been thus affected. Sir W. 

 Jardine has no doubt that, " in the north of Scotland, there has 

 been occasional crossing with our native species (F. sylvestris), 

 and that the result of these crosses has been kept in our 

 houses. I have seen," he adds, "many cats very closely 

 resembling the wild cat, and one or two that could scarcely be 

 distinguished from it." Mr. Blyth 85 remarks on this passage, 

 " but such cats are never seen in the southern parts of England ; 

 still, as compared with any Indian tame cat, the affinity of the 

 ordinary British cat to F. sylvestris is manifest ; and due I 

 suspect to frequent intermixture at a time when the tame cat 

 was first introduced into Britain and continued rare, while the 

 wild species was far more abundant than at present." , In 

 Hungary, Jeitteles 86 was assured on trustworthy authority that 

 a wild male cat crossed with a female domestic cat, and that 

 the hybrids long lived in a domesticated state. In Algiers 

 the domestic cat has crossed with the wild cat (F. Lybica) of 

 that country. 87 In South Africa, as Mr, E. Layard informs me, 

 the domestic cat intermingles freely with the wild F. caffra ; he 

 has seen a pair of hybrids which were quite tame and parti- 

 cularly attached to the lady who brought them up ; and Mr. Try 

 has found that these hybrids are fertile. In India the domestic 

 cat, according to Mr. Blyth, has crossed with four Indian species. 

 With respect to one of these species, F. chaus, an excellent 

 observer, Sir W. Elliot, informs me that he once killed, near 

 Madras, a wild brood, which were evidently hybrids from the 

 domestic cat; these young animals had a thick lynx-like tail 

 and the broad brown bar on the inside of the forearm charac- 

 teristic of F. chaus. Sir W. Elliot adds that he has often 

 observed this same mark on the forearms of domestic cats in 

 India. Mr. Blyth states that domestic cats coloured nearly like 

 F. chaus, but not resembling that species in shape, abound in 



85 Asiatic Soc. of Calcutta ; Curator's very interesting discussion on their 



Report, Aug. 1856. The passage from origin. 



Sir W. Jardine is quoted from this 86 < Fauna Hungarian Sup./ 1862, s. 



Eeport. Mr. Blyth, who has especially 12. 



attended to the wild and domestic cats 8 7 Isid. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, ' Hist, 



of India, has given in this Eeport a Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. p. 177. 



