234 
WILD-CATS AT THE ZOO 
of M. Champfleury, who considers that the Egyptian 
cat was acclimatized in Egypt at the same time as 
the horse, in 1668 b.c. 
All the other wild “ cats ” are either tiger-cats, 
leopard-cats, or puma-cats, names in which the last 
half of the compound should, we think, be read rather 
as a u diminutive ” than as an index to race. In them 
the habits and appearance of the larger rather than 
the smaller animal appear to the writer to bear the 
greater proportion in the affinities of the whole. 
From first impressions, the Bengal tiger-cat, for ex- 
ample, appears to be a variety of the domestic cat with 
the coat and colouring of a leopard, or rather of a 
cheetah. Its attitudes, or rather those of the full- 
grown specimen in the Society's collection, are those 
of a tired house-cat. It sleeps in the same positions, 
and like the true cats never “ paces ” for exercise. 
But a young one of the same species, shown this year 
at the Westminster Aquarium, untamed, preserved 
all the lion-like features strongly developed, just as the 
young of lions and pumas preserve the spots which 
disappear at maturity. The movements of this little 
creature and its general proportions were almost ex- 
actly those of a quarter-grown lion. It had the square 
head, the flat massive jaws, and the same restless, 
eager, pacing movements from side to side of its cage, 
and feet always ready to claw or strike. The colour- 
ing and texture of the skin in the full-grown animal 
are wholly unlike any variety of domestic cat known 
to the “ fancy.” Its colour is tawny, its coat short 
