quoted from this Report. Mr. Blyth, who has especially attended to the wild
and domestic cats of India, has given in this Report a very interesting
discussion on their origin.) remarks on this passage, "but such cats are
never seen in the southern parts of England; still, as compared with any
Indian tame cat, the affinity of the ordinary British cat to F. sylvestris
is manifest; and due I suspect to frequent intermixture at a time when the
tame cat was first introduced into Britain and continued rare, while the
wild species was far more abundant than at present." In Hungary, Jeitteles
(1/90. 'Fauna Hungariae Sup.' 1862 s. 12.) was assured on trustworthy
authority that a wild male cat crossed with a female domestic cat, and that
the hybrids long lived in a domesticated state. In Algiers the domestic cat
has crossed with the wild cat (F. lybica) of that country. (1/91. Isid.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 'Hist. Nat. Gen.' tome 3 page 177.) In South Africa
as Mr. E. Layard informs me, the domestic cat intermingles freely with the
wild F. caffra; he has seen a pair of hybrids which were quite tame and
particularly attached to the lady who brought them up; and Mr. Fry has
found that these hybrids are fertile. In India the domestic cat, according
to Mr. Blyth, has crossed with four Indian species. With respect to one of
these species, F. chaus, an excellent observer, Sir W. Elliot, informs me
that he once killed, near Madras, a wild brood, which were evidently
hybrids from the domestic cat; these young animals had a thick lynx-like
tail and the broad brown bar on the inside of the forearm characteristic of
F. chaus. Sir W. Elliot adds that he has often observed this same mark on
the forearms of domestic cats in India. Mr. Blyth states that domestic cats
coloured nearly like F. chaus, but not resembling that species in shape,
abound in Bengal; he adds, "such a colouration is utterly unknown in
European cats, and the proper tabby markings (pale streaks on a black
ground, peculiarly and symmetrically disposed), so common in English cats,
are never seen in those of India." Dr. D. Short has assured Mr. Blyth
(1/92. 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' 1863 page 184.) that, at Hansi, hybrids between