150 Mearns Two New Cats of the Eyra Group. 



the length of the neck. The figure also represents the pupil as 

 vertical; other authors describe the pupil of F. eyra as round." 

 (Baird.) On account of the larger size of this animal, and the 

 absence of the white or whitish markings on the head, described 

 by Azara,* Fischer, Rengger, and other authors in their ac 

 counts of Fells eyra, the animal described by Baird under that 

 name must be considered a distinct species, especially now that 

 another species of the eyra (Felis fossata) has been found in 

 habiting Central America. I propose the name Felis apache 

 for the eyra cat of Tamaulipas, described by Berlandier and 

 Baird in the works cited. The type will be skull No. 1373, 

 United States National Museum; a youngish-adult female, col 

 lected by Dr. Berlandier, at Matamoras in the State of Tamau 

 lipas, Mexico. 



Felis fossata sp. nov. 



YUCATAN EYKA CAT. 



Type. No. 7036, United States National Museum; skull of adult from 

 Merida, Yucatan, collected by I). Schott. 



Cranial characters. Skull narrow, its greatest diameters 91 by 60 

 mm.; convex posteriorly, flattened supraorbitally, with marked declina 

 tion forwards from middle of nasals; interfrontal region with a deep 

 fossa, V-shaped on section, 8 mm. in length, between the anterior ex 

 tremity of the interfrontal suture and the nasal bones, which latter are 

 similarly infolded, continuing the fossa forward to the extremity of the 

 nasals as a groove which gradually decreases in depth towards their ex 

 tremity; orbit relatively small: nasal bones narrow, elongated at sides, 

 pointed posteriorly where they are bent downward to form the anterior 

 portion of the frontal fossa; anterior narial opening high and narrow; 

 infraorbital foramen single, and round: interorbital region narrow; jugal 

 broad; posterior narial fossa wide, with a scarcely-perceptible postpala- 

 tal notch; audital bulhe elongate, high, pointed anteriorly, scarcely con- 



* Azara gives the following: "Length, thirty-one inches; tail, eleven 

 inches and a half, more bushy than that of the cat; and the other meas 

 urements proportioned to those of the preceding species [yagiiarundi'j . 

 The whole coat is of a red colour, except the lower jaw, the mustachios, 

 and a small spot on each side of the the nose, which are white. Its fur 

 does not yield in softness to that of the preceding species [Felis yaguar- 

 undi], and would be highly esteemed by furriers." (London edition of 

 Azara's Natural History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay and the River 

 ^a Plata, 1837, pp. 225-6.) 



