CHAP. XII.] DIFFERENT KINVS OF CATS. 427 



It is of a uniform vinous, or bright fulvous brown colour above, and 

 is paler, sometimes almost white, beneath. It is quite or almost entirely 

 unspotted, but some obscure spots are visible, in some specimens, on the 

 flanks, belly, and inner surface of the limbs. The tail has a black tip. 



The pads of the feet are bald. The skull is rather convex 

 between the orbits, as in F. pardina. 



Length of the head and body, twenty-six to thirty inches. 



Length of the tail, nine or ten inches. 



This animal is found in North-western India and in Central India 

 to the east coast : also in Thibet, Persia, Arabia, and throughout 

 Africa. 



(49.) The Common Cheetah or Hunting Leopakd 



[CyncBlurus juhata).* 



§ 12. This cat differs much more from all the other cats than any 

 other two cats differ one from another, and it therefore may be dis- 

 tinguished as constituting a nominally distinct group or "genus." 



It has a short rounded head, with long, slender limbs and a long 

 tail. Its ears are rounded, and not at all pencilled. 



It is a large animal, being four and a half feet long in head and 

 body, and with a tail two and a half (or two and three-quarters) 

 feet long. 



Its colour is bright rufous fawn, powdered with black spots. These 

 are not like those of the leopard — arranged in rosettes, nor, as in 

 the jaguar, in rings ; neither do they run together into stripes or 

 elongated patches, but are distinct, plain, round marks. The tail, 

 however, is more or less ringed with black. The hair of the neck 

 forms something of a mane, and that of the belly is long and light- 

 coloured. 



A black stripe runs downwards from the inner angle of the eye to 

 the margin of the upper lip near the angle of the mouth. 



Such are its colour and markings when adult. The young are 

 covered with long soft hair of a dark-brown colour, very obscurely 

 spotted. The head, the back of the neck, the back, and the upper 

 surface of the tail, are pale brown. They have altogether a singularly 

 different appearance from the adult. 



The cheetah has the claws always more or less exposed, not being 

 completely retractile as in the other cats, though it is furnished with 

 the same kinds of ligaments that they have. 



The skull of the cheetah is also very different in shape from the 

 skull of every other cat — being very high in proportion to its 

 length. The nasals are short, but not so short as in the ounce. 

 There is more than one infra- orbital foramen on each side. The 

 upper true molar is visible when the skull is seen in profile. The 



* Jerdon's Mammals of India, p. 114 ; 

 Gueparda, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc, 1867, 

 p. 396 ; and Cat. Brit. Mus., p. 39 ; De 



Blainville, Osteog., Fclis, plate 4 

 (skeleton). 



