MARBLED CAT.
Another beautifully marked cat. The tail is spotted and very long, the marbled markings being on the body only.
Photo by Ottomar Anschütz] [Berlin.
GOLDEN CAT.
Sumatra is the home of this very beautifully coloured cat. The general tint is that of gold-stone. Sometimes the belly is pure white.
The number of smaller leopard-cats and tiger-cats is very great. They fall, roughly, into three groups: those which are yellow and spotted, those which are grey and spotted, and those which are grey and striped, or "whole-coloured." There is no wholly grey wild cat, but several sandy-coloured species. All live on birds and small mammals, and probably most share the tame cat's liking for fish. Among the grey-and-spotted cats are the Mottled Cat of the Eastern Himalaya and Straits Settlements and islands; the Tibetian Tiger-cat; the Fishing-cat of India and Ceylon, which is large enough to kill lambs, but lives much on fish and large marsh-snails; Geoffroy's Cat, an American species; the Leopard-cat of Java and Japan, which seems to have grey fur in Japan and a fulvous leopard-like skin in India, where it is also called the Tiger-cat; and the smallest of all wild cats, the little Rusty-spotted Cat of India. This has rusty spots on a grey ground. "I had a kitten brought to me," says Dr. Jerdon of the species, "when very young. It became quite tame, and was the delight and admiration of all who saw it. When it was about eight months old, I introduced the fawn of a gazelle into the room where it was. The little creature flew at it the moment it saw it, seized it by the nape of the neck, and was with difficulty taken off." Of the whole-coloured wild cats—which include the Bay Cat, the American Pampas-cat, Pallas' Cat of Tibet and India—the most beautiful is the Golden Cat of Sumatra, one of which is now in the Zoological Gardens. It has a coat the colour of gold-stone. The nose is pink, the eyes large and topaz-coloured, the cheeks striped with white, and the under-parts and lower part of the tail pure white.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
PAMPAS-CAT.