ty-spotted Cat_ (_Jerdon's No. 113_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Namali pelli_, Tamil.--_Jerdon_.

HABITAT.--Southern India and Ceylon. Jerdon says he never saw or
heard of it in Central India, or on the Malabar Coast, but I got it
at Seonee in the Central Provinces.

DESCRIPTION.--Size of a small domestic cat, with a tail half the
length of the body; colour greyish with a rufous tinge, or greenish
grey tinged with rufous; the under parts white, with large rufous
spots; ears small; four well defined dark brown or black lines along
the forehead and nape, and three along the back, the latter being
interrupted into longish spots; a series of rusty coloured spots on
the sides; fur very short; tail uniform in colour, more rufous than
the body, sometimes indistinctly spotted; insides of limbs with
large brown spots; feet reddish grey above with black soles, whiskers
long and white.

SIZE.--Head and body, 16 to 18 inches; tail, 9-1/2.

Jerdon says: "This very pretty little cat frequents grass in the dry
beds of tanks, brushwood, and occasionally drains in the open country
and near villages, and it is said not to be a denizen of the jungles.
I had a kitten brought to me when very young, in 1846, and it became
quite tame, and was the delight and admiration of all who saw it.
Its activity was quite marvellous, and it was very playful and
elegant in its motions. When it was about eight months old I
introduced it into a room where there was a small fawn of the gazelle,
and the little creature flew at it the moment it saw it, seized it
by the nape, and was with difficulty taken off. I lost it shortly
after this. It would occasionally find its way to the rafters of
bungalows and hunt for squirrels."

Jerdon doubted the existence of this cat in Central India, but, in
1859 or 1860, I had two kittens brought to me by a Gond in the Seonee
district, and I kept them for many months. They became perfectly tame,
so much so that, although for nine months of the year I was out in
camp, they never left the tents, although allowed to roam about
unconfined. The grace and agility of their motions was most striking.
I have seen one of them balance itself on the back of a chair, and
when one of the pair died it was ludicrous to see the attempts of
a little gray village cat, which I got to be a companion to the
survivor, to emulate the gymnastics of its wild comrade. At night
the little cats were put into a basket, and went on with the spare
tents to my