Question about Bengals

I have noticed that Bengals are "rated" (don't know if that's a good word or not) on a scale of F's (F4, F3, etc). I'm curious as to what these mean. I think they are stunning animals, and they always take my breath away whenever I see a pic of them. I would like to learn a little more about them.

Thanks!

One of the Bengal breeders will be along in a mo for a thorough explanation. But meantime, those have to do with generations and how far they are from the first wild (F1 is the first generation designation if I remember correctly - physical anthro was a loooooong time ago!) cross.

they are filele (sp?) nubers of gerenrations ...
f1-f3 are considered too wild to be pets ..
f1 = kitty who has asian cat for parent and a domestic cat for the other
f2 = one of the grand parents was a wild cat
I am sure the breeders will come but this is how I understand it..

Bengals are created from a mating between a wild leopard cat and a domestic cat, usually a Mau or a Siamese, though later generation bengals are being used now. The products are known as a fililial generation, or foundation generation, or F generation for short. Hence, a kitten born with one wild parent and one domestic parent would be the first Fililial generation, or F1. That kittens offspring from a mating with a domestic cat would be the second Fililial generation, or F2.

The hybrid offspring are not considered fully domestic cats until they reach the fourth or in some places, fifth generation, when they are then called SBTs, or Standard Bred Tabbies (could also stand for Spotted Brown Tabbies). They are then considered sufficiently removed from the wild and can be shown.

Usually only the females of the F generations are bred. Males have a high rate of being sterile until they reach the SBT level.

Just to clear things up further. SBT stands for Stud Book Tradition.
Bengal cats are derived from the Asian Leopard Cat, also known as the ALC.

A question: my understanding as to the reasoning for initial crosses with wild spotted cats was, besides the obvious allure of having a wild looking true domestic, that rosetted spots do not occur naturally in the domestic population. Obviously spots (broken stripes) occur, which is where the Egyptian Mau came from, but not the rosettes. True?

I believe this to be true. I have not seen rosettes in any other breed of cat. That is not the reason for the bengal breed though.
Bengals started accidentally because Jean Mill put in a stray tom cat with her ALC to keep it company. They bred and she got the first bengal. She did not continue to breed. She later picked it up (breeding bengals) but I believe that there was someone else that came along in between that time that was breeding them for research to try and develop a cat with immunity to FeLv since ALC's do not get FELV.