[Illustration: _By permission of Percy Leigh Pemberton, Esq._
These wild cats, the property of Mr. P. Leigh Pemberton, though regularly fed and well treated, show their natural bad-temper in their faces.]
The real wild cats differ in their markings on the body, some being more clearly striped, while others are only brindled. But they are all alike in the squareness and thickness of head and body, and in the short tail, ringed with black, and growing larger at the tip, which ends off like a shaving-brush.
It may well be asked, Which of the many species of wild cats mentioned above is the ancestor of our domestic cats? Probably different species in different countries. The African Kaffir cat, the Indian leopard-cat, the rusty-spotted cat of India, and the European wild cat all breed with tame cats. It is therefore probable that the spotted, striped, and brindled varieties of tame cats are descended from wild species which had those markings. The so-called red tame cats are doubtless descended from the tiger-coloured wild cats. But it is a curious fact that, though the spotted grey-tabby wild varieties are the least common, that colour is most frequent in the tame species.
In the LYNXES we seem to have a less specially cat-like form. They are short-tailed, high in the leg, and broad-faced. Less active than the leopards and tiger-cats, and able to live either in very hot or very cold countries, they are found from the Persian deserts to the far north of Siberia and Canada.
The CARACAL is a southern, hot-country lynx. It has a longer tail than the others, but the same tufted ears. It seems a link between the lynxes and the jungle-cats. It is found in India, Palestine, Persia, and Mesopotamia. In India it was trained, like the cheeta, to catch birds, gazelles, and hares. The COMMON LYNX is probably the same animal, whether found in Norway, Russia, the Carpathians, Turkestan, China, or Tibet. The CANADIAN LYNX is also very probably the same, with local differences of colour. The NORTHERN LYNX is the largest feline animal left in Europe, and kills sheep and goats equally with hares and squirrels. The beautiful fur, of pale cinnamon and light grey, is much admired. In some southern districts of America we have the RED LYNX, or so-called "wild cat," which is distinct from the lynx of Canada. The MEDITERRANEAN or SPANISH LYNX seems likewise entitled to rank as a distinct species.