(_Felis catus_)
Savage as a wild cat is a proverbial expression; and although in
attitudes of repose, like the one selected for the coloured Plate,
the ferocity of look may temporarily disappear, there are few animals
fiercer or more bloodthirsty than _Felis catus_. Indeed, a wild cat
brought to bay or caught in a trap is a perfect fiend incarnate.
The wild cat and the lynx are the only feline Carnivora indigenous at
the present day to central and northern Europe; and of these two the
lynx has long since disappeared from the British Isles, and has become
very scarce throughout the greater part of the Continent, but is still
common in Scandinavia and Russia. The wild cat, on the other hand,
survives in most European countries, and is far from uncommon in the
Alps and many parts of France and Germany, although in Great Britain
its sole remaining refuges are among the highlands of Scotland, and
even there it has been suggested that many of the so-called wild cats
are hybrids, or domesticated cats run wild. Eastward, the range of the
wild cat extends at least as far as the Altai, where its representative
has a larger and more woolly coat than the typical western race.
In Africa the place of the European wild cat is taken by a closely
allied but somewhat less strongly striped species known as _Felis
ocreata_, of which the northern race was protected and held sacred by
the ancient Egyptians in Bubastis and other cities. That the European
and the African wild cats have given rise to the domesticated cats of
the greater part of the Old World may be considered certain, although
there is some difference of opinion as to the respective shares taken
by the two wild species in the production of the tame breeds. Among
the ordinary house-cats of western Europe, the type coming nearest to
the wild ancestor is the one with black transverse stripes on a grey
ground. The true tabby, on the other hand, that is to say the type
in which the dark markings take the form of broad longitudinal or
obliquely longitudinal bands arrayed in a ring-like or spiral manner
on the flanks, is unlike either of the two wild cats, and it has been
suggested that it may have had a totally distinct ancestry.
By choice the wild cat, which for most of the year lives alone,
frequents large, thick, and sequestered pine-forests, where it selects
rocky situations as affording the best hiding-places. In addition to
clefts in the rocks, it chooses, however, for its lair the burrows of
the fox or the badger, or holes in large tree-trunks, while it will
sometimes make its abode in thick bushes.
[Illustration]
In regard to food, the wild cat preys chiefly upon rats, mice, and
small birds, but it also kills larger animals, such as pheasants,
hares, rabbits, and squirrels, while it occasionally ventures to attack
the fawns of roe-deer and red deer, springing on their backs, and
tearing open the arteries of the neck. There is an old monkish Latin
line that “_catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas_” (the cat
loves fish, but does not like to wet its feet); but this applies only
to the domesticated breed, for when dwelling near streams or lakes
the wild cat will capture both fishes and water-fowl. Like many other
animals, it will often kill more than it can devour, as if from the
very love of slaughter.
The male and female live together only during the pairing-season, and
while the kittens are unable to look after themselves. At other times
each individual has its own particular haunt, from which, however, it
makes long excursions into the surrounding forest or the neighbouring
plains; such foraging expeditions often lasting for days together. In
winter it frequently deserts the forest to take up its abode in old
uninhabited buildings or other safe places of refuge.
In some sheltered situation the female gives birth in spring to five or
six kittens, very similar to those of domesticated cats, and likewise
born blind.
When captured, wild cats, whether old or young, are impossible to
tame; and it is for this reason that the species is so seldom seen in
menageries. As already mentioned, it has been suggested that many of
the cats found wild in Scotland are hybrids between the wild species
and the tame breed, but there is no evidence that such interbreeding
takes place; and such of these animals as are not true wild cats seem
to be individuals of the domesticated breed which have reverted to the
wild state, and have thereby assumed to some extent the characters of
the ancestral type.