I presented the matter to the authorities of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and I received the following communication, viz. : 



" Smithsonian Institution 

 United States National Museum 



Memorandum 



March 2, 1915. 



The skin * ='= * * appears to me to be that of a 

 melanistic leonard. Melanism is not rare in this animal. L'sually 

 it shows itself as a general darkening, through wliich the normal 

 markings can still be seen as under a heavy veil. In this indi- 

 vidual, en the contrary, it is limited to the back, sides and tail, 

 where it takes the form of an increase in area of the dark mark- 

 ings until these coalesce to form the ground color. 



It is evidently a very beautiful skin. 



\"ery truly yours, 



Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., 

 Curator, Div. of Mammals." 



The wide black portion, which glistens like the sheen of silk 

 velvet, extends from the top of the head to the extremity of the 

 tail entirely free from any white or tawny hairs, but when photo- 

 graphed, the skin was placed upon a platform rising at an angle 

 from the floor and it is fore-shortened in the picture, which 

 does not do justice to its exquisite beauty. It appears from the 

 photograph ^is if white or tawny h-^ir were spread over the back 

 at the shoulders, which is not the fact. The photographer 

 states that this appearance was caused bv reflection of the light 

 from the white markings, as he was obliged to take the picture 

 from an angle. 



In the tiger, the stripes are black, of an uniform character, 

 upon a tawny background, and they run in parallel lines from 

 the center of the back to the belly. In this skin, the stripes are 

 ahr.ost golden yellow, without the uniformity ?md parallelism of 

 the tiger characteristics, and they extend along the sides in 

 labyrimhine graceful curls and circles, several inches below the 

 wide shimmering black continuous course of the back. The ex- 

 treme edges around the legs and belly are \Adiite and sootted 

 lil-e the skin of a leopard. It was intimated to me in India that 

 this aninnl may have been the progeny of a cross between a tiger 

 and a leopard, but it is asserted by Zoologists that, although 

 such a condition may exist in a state of captivity, it is impossible 

 in annuals ferae naturae. 



From the authorities I have consulted ; from personal inter- 

 views 1 have had with learned Zoologists wdio examined this 

 skin, and from the statements in the communications hereinabove 



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