7° NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

Tho Clouded} This animal belongs to Sumatra where it lives

Tiger. upon the forest birds. Like the Ocelot it is
exceedingly playful when tame, seeking the notice and return-
ing the caresses of all who encourage it.

The Serva “The Serval,” says Captain Brown, “is somewhat
larger than the ordinary wild cat. Its genera! colour is a
pale fulvous yellow. It resides on trees, where it makes a
bed, and breeds its young. It seldom appears on the ground,
living principally on birds, squirrels, and small animals; it is
extremely agile, and leaps, with great rapidity, from one branch
to another. The serval never assaults man, but rather endea-
yours to avoid him; if, however, it is compelled to attack,
it darts furiously on its antagonist, and bites and tears, like
the rest of the cat kind.”

The Common The common wild cat is one of the few wild

Wild Cat. animals still to be found in the British Isles. Up
sill recent years these cats were observed among the woody
‘mountainous districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland and in
the wild parts of Scotland and Ireland, though as the land
ig brought more and more under cultivation they decrease
in numbers, failing suitable asylum. They abound in the
forests of Germany and Russia, where they live in the hollows
of trees and caves of rocks, and feed on birds, squirrels,
hares and rabbits, and will even attack young lambs and fawns.
The wild cat is not to be confused with the domestic cat
which has relapsed into a wild state. “In the form and
shape of the tail,” says Sir William Jardine, “this animal
somewhat resembles the Lynx. The fur is very thick, woolly
and long. The general colour is a greyish yellow, in some
specimens inclining much to a shade of bluish grey.”—*“ They
spring,” says Mrs. Bowdich, “furiously upon whoever approaches,
and utter unearthly cries. Mr. St. John, when walking up to
his knees in heather over broken ground, came suddenly
upon a wild cat. She rushed out between his legs, every
hair standing up. He cut a good-sized stick; and three Skye