everal species {44}
commingled: it is certain that cats cross readily with various wild
species, and it would appear that the character of the domestic breeds has,
at least in some cases, been thus affected. Sir W. Jardine has no doubt
that, "in the north of Scotland, there has been occasional crossing with
our native species (_F. sylvestris_), and that the result of these crosses
has been kept in our houses. I have seen," he adds, "many cats very closely
resembling the wild cat, and one or two that could scarcely be
distinguished from it." Mr. Blyth[89] 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[90] 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.[91] 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 {45} 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[92]
that at Hansi hybrids between the commo