176 Hollister — The Louisiana Puma. 



Felis arundivaga sp. nov. 



Type from 12 miles southwest of Vidalia, Concordia Parish, Louisiana. 

 No. 137,122, U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection), skin 

 and skull of d\ adult ( occipito-sphenoid suture entirely closed); collected 

 June 17, 1905, by B. V. Lilly. 



General characters. — A large puma of the Felis coryi type but lacking 

 the bright ferruginous color; skull much larger than in Felis couguar, 

 with the very broad nasals and highly developed saggital crest of F. coryi. 

 Differs externally from Felis o. azteca in its darker coloration and very 

 pronounced caudal stripe. 



Color of type. — Upperparts, including outer sides of limbs, grayish fawn 

 color with a decided cast of ecru drab, especially on flanks and legs; 

 nape, withers, and an indefinite stripe down back to rump brighter, pale 

 rufous; the entire upperparts finely mixed with dusky, the darker color 

 of the hair tips. Face from crown to nose darker, blackish, with clear 

 black spot each side of nose; a white streak over eye; ears blackish out- 

 side, with edge of gray and lining of white hairs. Lips and throat almost 

 pure white, shading through creamy white to fulvous on breast. Insides 

 of legs grayish, mixed brown and white hairs; fur of foot pads dark 

 brown; feet like legs and thinks. Tail much darker than back with a 

 sharply defined stripe of dark brown along the entire length of upper 

 surface from rump to the short black tip. 



Skull and teeth. — Skull large, massive, with the large, broad nasals 

 and high saggital crest as in F. coryi; but with larger audital bullae. 

 Much larger than the skulls of F. couguar, with well developed crest and 

 much larger nasals ; bullae much larger ; opening of anterior nares very 

 much larger ; teeth, especially the second and third upper premolars, 

 larger. 



Measarements. — Skin of type: Total length, 2100 nun.; tail, 735 (meas- 

 urements from tanned skin). Skulls of type and an adult male, very 

 slightly younger, from Mer Rouge, Louisiana; the latter in parentheses: 

 Condylobasal length, 193.5 (192); basal length, 180 (178); zygomatic 

 breadth, 149 ( — ); palatal length, 87 (88); postpalatal length, 95.5 (97) ; 

 least interorbital breadth, 43.5 (4ii); greatest length of nasals, 63 (60); 

 greatest breadth of nasals, 36.3 (35.4); length of upper premolar row, 

 46.1 (46); length of audital bulla, 36 (37); length of lower molar-pre- 

 molar series, 45.7 (46). 



Remarks. — The rich ferruginous or intense rusty red back and other 

 color characters of Felis coryi, and the pale uniformly colored back and 

 tail of Felis oregonensis azteca, are enough to distinguish readily the 

 Florida and Texas forms from the Louisiana puma. 



Pumas are still fairly common in the wilder parts of the cane brake 

 region of eastern Louisiana. In the early spring of 1904 while Mr. Waldo E. 

 Forbes of Boston, Mr. B. V. Lilly of Louisiana, and I were hunting in the 

 Bear Lake Cane we heard pumas calling in the forests at night, and sev- 

 eral times succeeded in starting the animals with the hounds, but they 

 were invariably too fast for our slow bear dogs and always quickly left 



