10 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadi'iuij. 



EuKOPEAN Wild Cat [Felis catus). 





Locality and Museum 



Register. 



Sex. 



Lower 

 Carnassial. 



Carnassial 

 to canine. 



Carnassial to 

 ist premolar. 



Upper 

 Carnassial. 



Eecent in 

 Dublin 

 Museum. 



Inverness, Scotland, 

 Germany, 



1/0. 1899 

 . 322. 1904 



c? 



m.m. 



8 



m.m. 



33 



36 



m.m. 



2U 



23 



m.m. 



lOi 



IH 





/Fort William, Scotland, 



99. 2. 9. 1 







32^ 



21 



lOi 



cent in 

 1 Museum. 



Inverness, Scotland, 



98. 12. 26. 1 



S 



8 



33| 



22 



11 



>» 



4. 1. 25. 5 

 4. 1. 25. 3 



? 

 i 





31 



33 



20 

 22 



10 



Re 

 itisl 



Caucasus, 79, ll. 15. 4. 





H 



3U 



22 







Baranza, Hungary, 



2. 6. 3. 1 



i 



8 



351 



22 



111 





Manonville, France, 



95. 11. 9. 1 



s 



8 



33 



21 



Hi 



It will be seen from this table of measurements of the jaws of the 

 European Wild Cat that, although the latter are of about the same 

 size as those of its African relative, the length of the lower carnassial 

 is often equal, and rarely exceeds that of the Domestic Cat. It is 

 almost always much shorter than that of the African Cat. But the 

 carnassial makes up in height for what it lacks in length, and it is, 

 as a rule, more square-shaped (Plate I., fig. 5) than that of the 

 African Cat. That it has not always this peculiar shape is probably 

 due to the fact that we frequently find in museums skulls which 

 belong to half-breeds. We do not know whether the African and 

 the European Wild Cats interbreed. They probably do so, and it 

 is certain that the latter frequently cross with Domestic Cats, so that 

 it is not easy to obtain pure-bred specimens now. 



Among the specimens examined at the British Museum, the one 

 from the Caucasus had a lower carnassial of an intermediate type, 

 also those from Hungary and France. JS'evertheless, they were 

 sufficiently distinct from African and cave types to be readily 

 separable. 



