[Illustration: _Photo, W.G. Berridge_. FIG. 1.--EUROPEAN WILD CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, W.G. Berridge_. FIG. 2.--PALLAS'S CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, R.C. Ryan_. FIG. 3.--ROYAL SIAMESE CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, Topical Press Agency_. FIG. 4.--STRIPED
DOMESTIC CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, Topical Press Agency_. FIG. 5.--BLOTCHED
DOMESTIC CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, R.C. Ryan_ FIG. 6.--TAIL-LESS CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, Topical Press Agency_. FIG. 7.--WHITE PERSIAN
KITTEN.]
[Illustration: _Photo, Topical Press Agency_. FIG. 8.--BLUE PERSIAN
CAT.]
[Illustration: _Photo, Topical Press Agency_. FIG. 9.--BLACK PERSIAN
KITTEN.]
The favourite haunts of the wild cat are mountain forests where masses
or rocks or cliffs are interspersed with trees, the crevices in these
rocks or the hollow trunks of trees affording sites for the wild cat's
lair, where its young are produced and reared. In the Spanish plains,
however, the young are often produced in nests built in trees, or among
tall bamboos in cane-brakes. "To fight like a wild cat" is
proverbial, and wild cats are described as some of the most ferocious
and untamable of all animals. How far this untamable character lends
support to the view of the origin of our domesticated breeds has not yet
been determined. Hares, rabbits, field-mice, water-rats, rats,
squirrels, moles, game-birds, pigeons, and small birds, form the chief
food of the wild cat.
Apart from the above-mentioned division of the striped members of both
groups into two types according to the pattern of their markings, the
domesticated cats of western Europe are divided into a short-haired and
a long-haired group. Of these, the former is the one which bears the
closest relationship to the wild cats of Africa and of Europe, the
latter being an importation from the East. The striped (as distinct from
the blotched) short-haired tabby is probably the one most nearly allied
to the wild ancestors, the stripes being, however, to a great extent due
to the European wild cat. In one direction the tabby shows a tendency to
melanism which culminates in complete blackness, while in the other
direction there is an equally marked tendency to albinism; grey cats,
which may be regarded as tabbies whose stripes have disappeared, forming
the connecting link between the tabby and the white cat. A mixture of
the melanistic with the albinistic type will of course give rise to
parti-coloured cats. A third colour-phase, the "erythristic" or red, is
represented by the sandy cat, the female of which takes the form of the
"tortoise-shell," characterized, curiously enough, by the colour being a
blend of black, white, and sandy. The so-called orange tabby is one
phase of the erythristic type.
As to long-haired cats, there appear originally to have been two
closely-allied strains, the Angora and the Persian, of which the former
has been altogether replaced in western Europe by the latter. That these
long-haired cats have an ancestry, to some extent at any rate distinct
from the ordinary short-haired breeds, is practically certain, and it
has been suggested that they are derived from the "manul" cat, or
Pallas's cat (_Felis manul_), of the deserts of central Asia, which is a
long-haired and bushy-tailed species with comparatively slight striping.
The fact that in tabby Persians the body-markings are never so strong as
in the short-haired breeds is in some degree confirmatory of this, as
suggesting descent from a nearly whole-coloured type. At the present
day, however, Persians exhibit nearly all the colour and pattern types
of the short-haired breeds, the "orange Persian" representing the
erythristic phase.
Turning to the tailless or so-called Manx cats, in which the tail should
be represented merely by a tuft of hair without any remnant of bone, it
seems that the strain is to be met with in many parts of Russia, and
there is a very general opinion that it originally came from Japan or
some other far eastern country. Throughout Japan, China, Siam, and the
Malay countries, normal long-tailed cats are indeed seldom seen. Instead
of these are cats with more or less abbreviated tails, showing in
greater or less degree a decided kink or bend near the tip. In other
cases the tail is of the short curling type of that of a bulldog;
sometimes it starts quite straight, but divides in a fork-like manner
near the tip; and in yet other instances it is altogether wanting, as in
the typical Manx cats. These kink-tailed or tailless cats are moreover
smaller in size than the ordinary short-tailed breeds, with rather
longer hair, whose texture approaches that of rabbit-fur, and a cry said
to be like that of the jungle-cat (_F. chaus_) of India and Africa, and
more dog-like habits. Unless the jungle-cat, which is a nearly
whole-coloured species, can claim the position, the ancestry of these
Manx-Malay cats is still unknown. Kink-tailed cats, it should be added,
are also known from Madagascar.
Among the domesticated cats of India a spotted type of colouring, with a
more or less decided tendency for the spots to coalesce into stripes, is
very noticeable; and it is probable that these cats are derived from the
spotted Indian desert-cat (_F. ornata_), with a certain amount of
crossing from other species. The so-called _F. torquata_ of India is
probably based on cats of this type which have reverted to the wild
state. Other Indian cats with a tawny or fulvous type of colouring are
probably the more or less modified descendants of the jungle-cat. From
the same stock may be derived the Abyssinian breed, in which the ears
are relatively large and occasionally tipped with long hairs (thus
recalling the tufted ears of the jungle-cat). The colour is typically
reddish-brown, each individual hair being "ticked" like that of a wild
rabbit, whence the popular name of "bunny cat." Another African breed is
the Mombasa cat, in which the hair is reported to be unusually short and
stiff.
By far the most remarkable of all the Old World domesticated breeds is,
however, the royal Siamese cat, which almost certainly has an origin
quite distinct from that of the ordinary European breeds; this being
rendered evident not only by the peculiar type of colouring, but
likewise by the cry, which is quite unmistakable. Siamese cats may have
the tail either straight or kinked, but whether the latter feature
belongs of right to the breed, or has been acquired by crossing with the
ordinary black and tabby kink-tailed cats of the country, is not known.
In the royal Siamese breed the head is rather long and pointed, the body
also elongated with relatively slender limbs, the coat glossy and close,
the eyes blue, and the general colour some shade of cream or pink, with
the face, ears, feet, under-parts, and tail chocolate or seal-brown.
There is however a wholly chocolate-coloured strain in which the eyes
are yellow. The most remarkable feature about the breed is that the
young are white. "The kittens," observes a lady writer, "are born
absolutely white, and in about a week a faint pencilling comes round the
ears, and gradually all the points come. At four or five months they are
lovely, as generally they retain their baby whiteness, which contrasts
well with their almost black ears, deep-brown markings, and blue eyes."
In constitution these cats are extremely delicate. The blue eyes and the
white coat of the kitten indicate that the Siamese breed is a
semi-albino, which when adult tends towards melanism, such a combination
of characters being apparently unknown in any other animal. If the
frequent presence of a kink in the tail be an inherent feature, the
breed is evidently related to the other kink-tailed Malay cats which, as
already stated, have a cry differing from that of European cats. Should
this be so, then if the ordinary Malay cats are the descendants of the
jungle-cat, we shall have to assign the same ancestry to the Siamese
breed.
Although definite information on this point is required, it seems
probable that the southern part of North America and South America
possessed certain native domesticated breeds of cats previous to the
European conquest of the country; and if this be so, it will be obvious
that these breeds must be derived from indigenous wild species. One of
these breeds is the Paraguay cat, which when adult weighs only about
three pounds, and is not more than a quarter the size of an ordinary
cat. The body is elongated, and the hair, especially on the tail, short,
shiny and close. This small size and elongated form suggest origin from
the jaguarondi (_F. jaguarondi_), a chestnut-coloured wild species; but
information appears to be lacking with regard to the colouring of the
domesticated breed. Another South American breed is said to be free from
the hideous "caterwauling" of the ordinary cat. In old days New Mexico
was the home of a breed of hairless cats, said to have been kept by the
ancient Aztecs, but now well-nigh if not completely extinct. Although
entirely naked in summer, these cats developed in winter a slight growth
of hair on the back and the ridge of the tail.
LITERATURE.--St George Mivart, _The Cat_ (London, 1881); R. Lydekker,
"Cats," in _Allen's Naturalists' Library_ (1888); F. Hamilton, _The
Wild Cat of Europe_ (London. 1896); Frances Simpson, _The Book of the
Cat_ (London, 1903). (R. L.*)