IS IT UNIQUE? 

 By Holdridge Ozro Collins, LL.D. 



In the month of December, 1912, while I was in the City of 

 Madras, India, I purchased from Mr. G. A. Chambers, a very 

 pecuHar and beautifully marked skin, the hair of which is nearly 

 as fine and glossy as that of a dressed seal-skin, and which no 

 Biologist, nor Zoologist to whom I submitted it for examination in 

 Cairo and \'ienna was able to identify. 



The frontispiece hereto is an half-tone representation, made 

 from a fore-shortened photograph. The skin is larger than that 

 of a Leopard, but smaller than that of a full grown Tiger. 



Mr. Chambers gave me a written statement which I now 

 liaye. of which the following is a copy, to-wit : 



a 



THE CHROME LEATHER CO., LTD. 



TANNERS AND LEATHER GOODS MANUFACTURERS RBF. NO.. 



■GRAPH "hides'" 



TELE 



PHONE No. 1 



Retail Depot 

 MISQUITH'S BUILDINGS, MOUNT ROAD MADRAS, 23rd December, 1912. 



TELEPHONE No. 363 Box 100 



I, the undersigned, hereby certify that I am engaged in 

 business in the City of Madras under the name of Chrome 

 Leather Company, Limited, for the purchase, tanning and sale 

 cf hides, skins and furs, and I haye been engaged in such busi- 

 ness in Maciras, India, durirg the last 19 years. 



The animal of which this is the skin was killed in Malabar 

 in South Western India, during the year 1912. Its unusual mark- 

 ings and beauty were strange to me and I was not able to 

 identify it, so I sent it to the Government Museum at Madras for 

 examination with my letter, of which this is a ocpy, viz. : 



Madras, 1st Alay, 1912. 

 Dear Dr. Henderson : 



I am sending per bearer a skin. Can you please tell me 

 from what animal it has been taken ? It appears to me to be a 

 freak. Yours faithfully, 



G. A. Chambers. 



To the above note I received the following reply : 

 No. 314. Government Museum, 



Madras, S. C, 1st May, 1912. 

 Dear Mr. Chambers : 



The skin is an unusually fine one of the Leopard or Panther. 

 It belongs to a variety of which I have never seen a specimen 

 before. Yours sincerely, 



G. A. Chambers, Esq. J. R. Henderson. 



I have never before seen a skin of these peculiar markings 

 and I consider it of great value and of a most rare animal. 



G. A. Chambers." 

 49 



