136 



The Irish Naturalist. 



June, 



There is no doubt that the Domestic Cat when wild-reared for several 

 generations grows to an abnormal size and strength, almost rivalling its 

 wild relative, and when with its dense coat of thick coarse fur, and of the 

 true wild colour, it is easily mistaken by ordinary observers for a true 

 Wild Cat. 



I have myself trapped, and seen shot, old male specimens that were 

 nearly twice the size and weight of the house cats, and one, that was of 

 the wild colour and markings, only for his pointed tail, might easily have 

 been mistaken for a true Felis catus. 



Since Mr. Thompson's time, and that of his fellow naturalists, the 

 trapping of rabbits has become so general all over Ireland, that scarcely 

 a rabbit burrow anywhere has been untrapped, and when this has been 

 the case, without specimens of either Wild Cat or Weasel being forth- 

 coming, I do not see the slightest probability of either animal ever being 

 obtained. Surely, the single instance of the finding of semifossil bones 

 of a cat in a Co. Clare cave does not prove the Wild Cat to be a native of 

 Ireland ; something more will be required to prove it to Irish naturalists. 



In proof of how easily persons may be mistaken, I may state that lately 

 in the Dublin Museum there was a specimen of a wild reared domestic 

 cat, of the wild colour and markings, sent to me by an I^nglish naturalist 

 as a Wild Cat received by him from Ireland. 



I do not think that the old fisherman's story to Mr. de Vismes Kane, 

 as related by Mr. Welch in this month's Irish Naturalist, need be taken 

 seriously, for if Wild Cats are so numerous as stated on the banks 

 of Ivackagh, in such a wild uninhabited district, where probably no 

 trapper ever laid a trap, some remnants of the race must be yet in 

 existence. 



Robert Warren. 



Moyview, Ballina, 



[Reference to Dr. Scharff's paper will show that the bones discovered 

 n the Clare cave do not belong to Felis catus but to a distinct South 

 European Wild Cat. It is of course this latter species which Dr. Scharff 

 thinks may possibly still survive in remote corners of Ireland, and being 

 externally much more like the Domestic Cat than F. catus is, it is the 

 more likely to be overlooked We disagree with Mr. Warren that Irish 

 naturalists will not be content to accept this most interesting addition 

 to our mammalian fauna on the evidence of Dr. Scharff's discovery, as it 

 seems to us that no better evidence can be brought forward of the recent 

 occurrence in any country of a particular animal than the existence of its 

 bones in a sub-fossil condition — E^ds.] 



