ZOOLOGY 
289 
relationship to the lynxes. The spots are simple like those in the cheetah and 
the lynxes, and although he is a true cat (in that the claws are fully retractile), 
still the paw rs much smaller in relative size than it is with other members of the 
genus Felis, and much more like the paw of the cheetah. Also the claws are 
not proportionally so large. The ears have a slight approach to a tuft at the 
apex suggesting the lynx ; the tail though much longer than that of an average 
lynx is still rather short but very thick ; and in this particular the animal has 
diverged from the ancestral cat rather in the direction of the lynxes. The legs 
are very long which is also a characteristic of the cheetah and the lynx but 
may have been acquired by the serval from its hunting habits ; for from all 
accounts it often pursues its prey instead of lying in wait and securing it by 
■sudden leaps. Nevertheless, it is a good climber and owing to the small size 
of its feet and thin body can find a foothold on a ledge not more than two 
inches broad. 
The serval is most destructive to the smaller game, but it is a beautiful 
animal and often attains a length of nearly four feet and a height at the 
shoulder of three feet. The other wild cat of British Central Africa is the 
Fells caffra, very like the form which gave rise to the Egyptian domestic cat, 
and which, mingled with the true wild cat of Europe and Asia, was the joint 
parent of the European domestic cat. 
The cats kept by the natives are scarcely distinguishable sometimes from the 
wild Felis caffra , though undoubtedly the main origin of their domesticated 
animal (remotely derived from the cat of Egypt and Syria —Felis maniculata ) 
is from a foreign source—from Europe and India, via the East Coast of Africa. 
But unquestionably the wild cat of British Central Africa mingles freely with 
the domestic and semi-domestic animal, and the natives often bring in its 
kittens from the woods and rear them as domestic cats. These animals are 
charming when in the kitten stage, but when they grow up they become lanky, 
with small heads and thin tails. The domestic cats which are too directly 
derived from the wild species are not very tame or tractable. 
The cheetah is very rare but is found on the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau, 
near Lake Mweru, probably in the Luangwa Valley, and possibly in the 
countries to the north-east of Lake Nyasa. I have no positive record of this 
hunting cat having been actually killed in the Nyasaland province. The 
animal has been shot by Mr. J. B. Yule (who showed me the skins, one of which 
I sent home) on the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau. The cheetah in question was 
the common variety with black spots. I have never heard of the red spotted 
cheetah of South Africa having been found north of the Zambezi. 
The hyena of British Central Africa is the ordinary spotted species whose 
range extends from South Africa to the Egyptian Sudan up the eastern side of 
the continent; the spotted hyena is probably found in the Central Sudan and 
may enter the Niger territories outside the forest region. 1 
The civet cat is extremely common. Strange to say the natives seem to 
make no use of its remarkable scent gland. A lovely little genet cat, whose 
large spots are a rich umber brown instead of black is very common, and makes 
a charming house pet. 
1 The remarkable brown hyena has a somewhat similar range but less continuous. I believe I met 
with it on Kilimanjaro ; it is commonest in south-east Africa and is said to extend along the south-west 
coast as far as the district of Mossamedes. Up to the present it has not been recorded from British 
■Central Africa. The range of the striped hyena is altogether far to the north. It probably nearly meets 
the range of the spotted hyena in the Sudan and elsewhere extends over the Mediterranean basin, Persia, 
and Western India. 
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