mes faint spots on the belly; rufous stripes on the cheek;
a dark stripe ascends from the eye, especially in the young animal,
and it has sometimes faint stripes on the nape mingling on the
forehead; the ears are slightly tufted, dark externally, white
within; the tail, which is short, is more or less ringed from the
middle to the tip, which is black. Melanoid specimens have been
found.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 26 inches; tail, nine to ten; height at
shoulder, 14 to 15 inches.

This rather common cat is, in some degree, related to the lynxes,
sufficiently distinct, yet resembling the latter in its tufted ears,
short tail, long limbs, and some few peculiarities of the skull.

Jerdon says of it: "It frequents alike jungles and the open country,
and is very partial to long grass and reeds, sugar-cane fields, corn
fields, &c. It does much damage to game of all kinds--hares,
partridges, &c., and quite recently I shot a pea fowl at the edge
of a sugar-cane field when one of these cats sprang out, seized the
pea fowl, and after a short struggle (for the bird was not dead)
carried it off before my astonished eyes, and in spite of my running
up, made good his escape with his booty. It must have been stalking
these birds, so immediately did its spring follow my shot." Blyth
writes: "In India the _chaus_ does not shun, but even affects
populous neighbourhoods, and is a terrible depredator among the tame
ducks and poultry, killing as many as it can get at, but I have not
known him to attack geese, of which I long kept a flock out day and
night, about a tank where ducks could not be left out at night on
account of these animals. A pair of them bred underneath my house,
and I frequently observed them, and have been surprised at the most
extraordinary humming sound which they sometimes uttered of an
evening. Their other cries were distinguishable from those of the
domestic cat." This species will, however, interbreed with the
domestic cat. According to Hodgson it breeds twice a year in the woods,
producing three or four kittens at a birth. It is said to be
untameable, but in 1859, at Sasseram, one of the men of my Levy caught
a very young kitten, which was evidently of this species. I wrote
at the time to a friend about a young mongoose which I had just got,
and added, "It is great fun to see my last acquisition and a little
jungle cat (_Felis chaus_) playing together. They are just like two
children in their manner, romping a