''Felis chaus affinis'' is a

jungle cat The jungle cat (''Felis chaus''), also called reed cat, swamp cat and jungle lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to the Middle East, the Caucasus, South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It inhabits foremost wetlands like swamps, littora ...

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

. It was described by British zoologist

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

in 1830 based on an illustration by

Thomas Hardwicke Major-General Thomas Hardwicke (1756 – 3 March 1835) was an English soldier and naturalist who was in India from 1777 to 1823. He collected numerous specimens of natural history and had them painted by Indian artists. From these paintings ma ...

Taxonomy

Thomas Hardwicke's collection of illustrations of Indian wildlife comprises the first drawing of a Himalayan jungle cat, which the British zoologist John Edward Gray named the "Allied cat" ''Felis affinis'' in 1830. In the 19th century, several jungle cat specimens from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

were proposed as subspecies: *In 1832, a stuffed cat was presented at a meeting of the

Asiatic Society of Bengal The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

that had been caught in the jungles of

Midnapore Medinipur or Midnapore (Pron: med̪iːniːpur) is a city known for its history in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the West Medinipur district. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River (variously known as '' ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. Pearson who donated the specimen described it as different in colour from ''Felis chaus'' and proposed the name ''Felis kutas''. *In 1852, the Ceylonese naturalist

Edward Frederick Kelaart Lieutenant Colonel Edward Frederick Kelaart (21 November 1819 – 31 August 1860) was a Ceylonese-born physician and naturalist. He made some of the first systematic studies from the region and described many plants and animals from Sri Lanka. B ...

described the first ''Felis chaus'' skin from northern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and emphasised its close resemblance to a "swamp lynx".Kelaart, E. F. (1852)
''Prodromus Faunæ Zeylanicæ: Being Contributions to the Zoology of Ceylon''.
Printed for the author, Colombo. In the 1930s, Pocock reviewed the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

's jungle cat skins and skulls from

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and adjacent countries. Based mainly on differences in fur length and colour he grouped six larger skins from

Sind Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

under the name ''Felis chaus prateri''. He subordinated the specimens from

and southern

under ''Felis chaus kelaarti'', but those from northern India and the Himalayas to ''Felis chaus affinis''. Since 2017, all three names are considered synonymous with ''F. c. affinis''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5442079 affinis Taxa named by John Edward Gray