The Bengal is a hybrid breed of cat, formed by the cross of a domestic feline and an Asian Leopard Cat , Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis. The Bengal cat has a desirable "wild" appearance with large spots, rosettes, and a light/white belly, and a body structure reminiscent of the ALC. The Bengal possesses a gentle domestic cat temperament, provided it is separated by at least three generations from the original crossing between a domestic feline and an ALC. The name Bengal cat was derived from the taxonomic name of the Asian Leopard Cat , and not from the more distantly related Bengal... tiger. The earliest mention of an ALC/domestic cross was in 1889, when Harrison Weir wrote in "Our Cats and All About Them" : However in 1927, Mr Boden-Kloss wrote to the magazine "Cat Gossip" regarding hybrids between wild and domestic cats in Malaya: The earliest mention of a confirmed ALC/domestic cross was in 1934 in a Belgian scientific journal, and in 1941 a Japanese cat publication printed an article about one that was kept as a pet.
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