FELIS. 455 



Geogr. Distr. West coast of North America, east to Rocky 

 Mountains, south into northern Mexico. 



Genl. Char. Size variable; tail long; color variable. 



Color. Upper parts and sides varying from dark to pale rufous 

 brown, occasionally almost of a gray shade, darkest on dorsal region ; 

 tail above like back, with a black tip, beneath either white on basal 

 portion, or all gray or grayish white; face with black patch on upper 

 lip on each side of nose; top of head and nose darker than back; 

 upper lip and throat white; belly white or grayish white, often tinged 

 with rufous; ears behind black with a paler spot on center; front 

 part of legs similar to body; hind part paler, often nearly white. 



Measurements. Total length, 2000-2600, often less than 2000; 

 tail vertebrae, 750-900; hind foot, 260-270. Skull: adults, occipito- 

 nasal length, 175-202; Hensel, 144-167; zygomatic width, 124-142; 

 interorbital constriction, 34-41.5; across postorbital processes, 63-75; 



without considering other causes. Color in these animals is equally unsatis- 

 factory; for whenever many Puma skins from any locality are compared, their 

 color will be seen to be mostly a matter of individual or seasonal variation. 

 As to skull dimensions and characters, none have yet been given, so far as I 

 have seen, that are permanent, by which I mean characters that are to be met 

 with in ALL skulls from even the srme locality. This being so, they cannot 

 be depended upon or maintained; for the same characters may be, and indeed 

 are, found in skulls of Pumas killed many miles apart, and which rejoice in 

 different names. Dr. Merriam has separated the Puma from Colonia Garcia 

 in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, as a distinct form under the name of F. 

 hippolestes aztecus, giving such characters as "narrow interorbital region; 

 frontals elevated, arched; sagittal crest less highly developed; bullae variable; 

 tail without white beneath, and a dull grayish fulvous color on the upper parts." 

 There are in the collection of the Field Columbian Museum five topotypes of this 

 animal, varying in size and color, from one as large as a big northwest speci- 

 men to a moderately sized individual, and in color from a rather pale hue to 

 one indistinguishable from the Pumas of Montana and British Columbia, with 

 which a comparison has been made, and also exhibiting tails with and without 

 white beneath. The skulls do not average narrower in the interorbital region, 

 in fact some are wider than those of their northern relatives, the frontals are 

 neither more elevated nor arched, the sagittal crest is present in all, and varies 

 in development, as will be the case in all cat skulls which have it at all. The 

 bullas vary greatly in size in all, more so perhaps in the Chihuahua specimens 

 than in the others, but there are more of them than from any other particular 

 locality, so this fact cannot be definitely determined, but the variation among 

 the Mexican specimens is so great as to prove that for form or size the dimensions 

 of the bullae, in these examples at least, are worthless as specific char- 

 acters. "Total length" depends, as a rule, mainly upon the length of tail, 

 and this member differs greatly in that respect in this family, the caudal ver- 

 tebrae in some individuals of the same species and from the same locality often 

 varying in number. This I have known to be the case among lions and other 

 big cats. After a very careful investigation and comparison, therefore, of 

 these Colonia Garcia specimens with those from the north and northwestern 

 United States and British Columbia, I do not find a single intelligible charac- 

 ter by which they can be separated, and have placed F. h. aztecus as a syno- 

 nym of F. oregonensis Rafin, expressing at the same time very great doubts if 

 this northwestern animal has any claims to be considered distinct from the 

 Pumas inhabiting the other portions of the United States, no dependable char- 

 acters having yet been suggested by which the animals of one section can be 

 accurately and definitely distinguished at all times from those of another. 



