Tomcat: The Definitive Guide

By Jason Brittain, Ian F. Darwin

Cover | Table of Contents | Index | Sample Chapter | Colophon

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Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Tomcat: The Definitive Guide is a snow leopard. The snow leopard (Uncia uncia) lives in the mountains of Central Asia, a cold, cliffy habitat with sparse vegetation. This medium-sized "big cat" has long body hair, dense underfur, a well-developed chest, and a furry tail that can be wrapped around its face and body for warmth, making it well-suited to the icy, thin air of its native climate. Its white to smoky-gray coloring and dark-gray to black spots blend in with the rocky slopes. Large paws help it walk on snow, and its exceptional leaping ability and feline agility aid in its pursuit of prey.

The snow leopard stands about 24 inches at the shoulder, weighs between 60 and 120 pounds, and can kill animals up to three times its weight. Common prey include Himalayan blue sheep, Asiatic ibex, marmot, small rodents, and game birds such as the Tibetan snowcock. Mature snow leopards are solitary animals, living and hunting alone, except during mating season. Young snow leopards are born in the spring and spend their first few months in rocky shelters lined with fur; after that, their mothers lead them on hunts through their first winter.

Listed as an endangered species since 1972, the snow leopard population is now estimated to be between 4,500 and 7,500 worldwide. The fur trade, once the main threat to this species, has decreased in recent years, but they are still hunted for their bones, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine as a substitute for tiger bones. They are also killed by herders in retaliation for eating livestock, which have taken over the grazing areas once used by the snow leopard's natural prey. The snow leopard's small litters (only two to three cubs per year) make this species particularly vulnerable to extinction. Genevieve d'Entremont was the production editor and copyeditor for Tomcat: The Definitive Guide. Brian Sawyer and Phil Dangler proofread the book. Jane Ellin provided quality control. Derrick Di Matteo provided production assistance. Lynda D'Arcangelo wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Andrew Savikas to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Genevieve d'Entremont.

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