78 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
cat relates, it would follow the flocks of wild 
turkeys on their way and, learning the direction 
in which they were bound, would proceed by a 
short cut to the path they would be apt to take. 
There it would crouch low and, when one came 
withhin its reach, it would bound upon it and seize 
it. 
Despite this element of sagacity and skill, 
the wild cat is a very shy animal, and when delib 
erately hunted displays great address in eluding 
both hunters and dogs. It is very timid, yet it 
makes a stout defence when driven to extremity. 
Again, the wild cat is a very tolerable swim- 
mer and has not the usual aversion of others of 
the cat family to water. 
The usual home of this cat is in the hole of 
a tree, or in some space beneath a log. The 
mother makes a bed of moss and leaves, where 
she cradles her little ones, from two to four such 
at a time. 
Cunning as are the kittens — the picture is 
of one such at the big Zoo at Memphis — all at- 
tempts to domesticate them, even where taken 
at birth, well-nigh have proven fruitless and the 
cat in the photograph will snarl and snap even 
at the good keepers who feed and tend her, draw 
aloof from them and attempt to snap or scratch 
should any of them get within reach. 
Whether our domestic cat is descended from 
the American wild cat, or from her close kin, 
the European wild cat, or whether all look back 
to one common ancestor (as cannot be denied, 
for remains of cat animals are found even in 
fossil form), is matter of dispute among scientists. 
The great Goodrich inclines to the latter 
view, and he tells some interesting things as re- 
sult of his studies of the European wild cat. This 
wild cat is found not alone in Europe, but in Asia 
and Africa, and it is sometimes to be chanced 
upon in the United States. 
When America was first discovered, it ap^- 
pears, domestic cats, tame or wild, were not found 
here; all our domestic cats, as well as this es- 
pecial type of wild ones, are the descendants of 
those brought hither by Europeans. 
Again, the wild cats of Europe are either 
the descendants of the original races that have 
continued untamed from the beginning, or of 
domesticated cats that have wandered from their 
homes, and, living apart from Man, have relapsed 
into barbarism. It is said that the wild and the 
tame cats, in their wanderings, sometimes meet, 
and when this is the case, the females of the 
tame breed are well treated by the savage cats; 
but the males are rudely set upon and sometimes 
torn in pieces. Again, wild and tame cats will 
sometimes mate, the young being of the curious 
sort known as tiger cats. 
Some naturalists however, hold that the 
European wild cat is a distinct species from all 
other sorts, since the tail is shorter and more 
bushy than that of the domestic cat. 
Howsoever, certain it is that the wild cat of 
Europe is rather large and more robust than the 
tame breed. The head is triangular, and has 
a savage aspect; especially when the animal is 
irritated. The fur is long, soft and thick; the 
back, sides and limbs are grey, darker on the 
back and paler below, with a blackish, longitu- 
linal stripe along the middle of the back and in- 
numerable paler curved ones on the sides. The 
tail is played with light grey and black, the tip 
of the latter colour. 
"As is the case with many other animals — 
the ox, dog and horse," one student tells us, "so 
it is w ith cats. The wild ones are nearly all of 
the same hue; while the domestic ones, as is well 
known, are white, black, grey and yellow, of 
mingled shades and colours." 
In Europe, too, the wild cat is a very shy 
animal, chiefly nocturnal in its habits. It lurks 
in woods and thickets, and preys on hare, squirrel 
and birds of various kinds. Four or five hundred 
jears ago it was quite common in England, but 
it has long since been extirpated there, though 
common enough, still, in France, Germany, Rus- 
sia and Hungary, up to, say, fifty years ago. 
Which wild cat, then, may have fathered the 
race of our domestic cats, it is purely guesswork 
to say; howsoever, cats of the domestic sort seem 
to have been companions of Man since the very- 
dawn of time. 
Egypt had its domestic cats; the embalmed 
remains of these are so old that some authorities 
think the Egyptians the first to tame cats. The 
old Romans had the cat; thus with most the early 
European peoples, elsewhere — and we have the 
cat with us to-day. 
Tabby, Maltese, Angora, whatsoever, she's 
as much a pet as of use, and few the homes, the 
world over, that are considered complete unless 
possessed of some favourite pet cat. 
FUTURE OF THE MUSCOVY DUCK. 
By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.S. 
(Continued from No. 6, October, Page 47.) 
But all this, one may say, has nothing to do 
with laying, and on the evidence given the Mus- 
covy Duck seems to be a rearing, rather than a 
laying, bird, just like a goose or turkey. That is 
true, and until a few weeks ago I had never heard 
of Muscovies as "egg-machines," which are the 
pressing need in the poultry world now-a-days. 
But a few weeks ago, in the" Feathered World," 
