422 
CARNIVORES. 
disagrees with Riippel’s in its more robust form and stouter legs.” Professor 
Mivart speaks of the cat represented in the same painting as a “ tabby cat,” and 
would appear to regard it as belonging to a domesticated species or variety. The 
evidence of the mummified cats, which are indistinguishable from the wild caflfre 
cat, points, however, strongly to the correctness of Professor Virchow’s conclusion 
that the ordinary tamed cat of the ancient Egyptians belonged to that species. 
Still, however, it is quite probable that certain variations from the original type 
may in some instances have been produced by breeding in a domesticated state. 
The Wild Cat (Felis catus). 
The wild cat is the only native representative of the family found within the 
British Islands, where it is almost daily becoming scarcer. 
In general colour this species is not unlike many of our domestic “ tabbies,” 
from which it is distinguished, not only by its superior size and strength, but also 
by its stouter head, and the much shorter and thicker tail, which, instead of 
tapering, preserves a nearly uniform thickness to the tip. The ground-colour of 
the body is yellow-grey; the markings taking the form of a dark streak along the 
middle of the back, from which descend more or less nearly vertical stripes of the 
same hue, these stripes becoming nearly horizontal on the limbs, while the tail is 
ornamented with similar dark rings, and terminates in a black tip. The “whiskers” 
are more voluminous than in domestic cats; and in the male sex the soles of all 
the feet are black. The length of the tail is rather less than one-half that of the 
head and body. The male is considerably larger than the female, but shows a 
great amount of individual variation in its dimensions. According to the authors of 
Bell’s British Quadrupeds the total average length of the males is about 2 feet 
9 inches, of which 11 inches is taken up by the tail; but an unusually large 
specimen killed near Cawdor Castle had a length of 3 feet 9 inches from the nose 
to the tip of the tail. 
The wild cat was formerly distributed over the forest-clad districts of the 
larger part of Great Britain, but, as we shall show later on, was never known in 
Ireland. It is widely distributed, in suitable localities over the Continent, occurring 
in France rarely, Germany commonly, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Southern 
Russia, Spain, Dalmatia, Greece, and parts of Turkey; but it is unknown in Italy, 
Norway, Sweden, and Northern Russia. The specimens from the more northern 
parts of its range are said to be larger, with longer and thicker fur, than those 
from its southern habitats. Eastwards it has been recorded from the shores of the 
Caspian; and a large cat with a short tail killed by the late Sir O. B. St. John 
in Persia was referred by its captor to this species. The skin was, however, 
unfortunately lost, so that the determination cannot be regarded as absolutely 
certain. 
The wild cat has been an inhabitant of Great Britain since the age of the 
mammoth; its fossil remains having been obtained (both there and on the 
Continent) in caverns containing the bones and teeth of the mammoth and other 
extinct Mammals of the Pleistocene age. It has, however, now completely disappeared 
from the greater part of England, only remaining in the mountainous districts of 
