FELIS LYBICA. 
175 
Dr. Blanford mentions the difference between the cats ot the coast-region and those 
of the highlands of Abyssinia, and preferred to distinguish the two forms under the 
two names used by Temminck; but with more material to work on it is clearly shown 
that the low-ground animals are in no way inferior in size, and that a complete 
gradation takes place between the short- and long-furred forms. As is well known, the 
length, and especially the denseness, of the fur has an enormous effect on the apparent 
size of a cat, and the difference in size between the sexes is very considerable. 
The typical form of this species is found on the east of the African continent from 
Egypt to Nyassaland. The material available is insufficient to show finally to what 
extent the various forms of this cat, which are distributed over a very much wider 
area, differ from one another; but there is ample to show that F. margarita, Loche i, 
from the Algerian Sahara, and F. obscurct, Desmarest from Cape Colony, among others, 
are only slightly modified local forms or subspecies. The last-mentioned form is 
commonly known as F. cafra, Desmarest ^; but as the former name was given two 
years earlier to a melanistic specimen of the same species, it is obvious that this name, 
though founded on a variety, cannot be set aside; the South-African form should 
therefore stand as F. lyhica subsp. ohscura. 
Canon Tristram found a cat closely resembling the typical form in Moab, and 
Colonel Yerbury obtained specimens at Lahej in Southern Arabia. 
When single specimens are received from distant localities it is difficult to know 
whether they are typical of a race peculiar to that district or possibly hybrids with the 
domestic cat. This is always a very difficult point to settle, for, as is well known, the 
domestic cat almost always gets tainted by the wild cats of the country. In reference 
to the present species, Emin Pasha found that his domestic cats bred freely with 
the wild species in Niam Niam, and Capt. Stanley Elower informs me that he has 
seen domestic cats near Suez which can scarcely be distinguished from F. lyhica. 
The Plate was drawn from a specimen living in the Zoological Gardens of London, 
obtained on the Suakin Plain and presented to the Society by Dr. Anderson. 
This species is generally supposed to be the main origin of the domestic breed of 
cats. Temminck was the first to publish this fact. Dr. Nehring (Verb. Berlin. 
Anthrop. Ges. 1889, p. 558), in a paper on the skulls of cats from Bubastis, Beni 
Hasan, and Siut, expresses the view that this species was the original stock of the 
domestic breed of the western civilization, while the domestic cat of China had a 
perfectly distinct origin. 
The remains of cats were found in such large quantities at Bubastis that cargoes 
were sent to Europe to make manure, and they were largely used also by the natives to 
fertilize the land in the immediate neighbourhood. The Museums of Europe contain 
^ Rev. Zool. 1858, p. 49, pi. i. 
^ Op. cit. Siippl. 1822, p. 540. 
2 Encycl. Meth., Mamm. 1820, p. 230. 
