238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. XXV. 



iL Smaller; basilar length of .skull of male measuring 120 mm., female 105 mm. 

 (Iround-color of upper parts, tawny anteriorly, varying from wood brown 

 to clay color posteriorly. Black markings moderately intense. Inhabits 



southern iNIexico - Felts parduUs Linnteus. 



4(1. Larger; basilar length of skull of male measuring 130 mm., female 115 mm. 

 Ground-color russet anteriorly, varying from tawny-olive to cream-buff 

 posteriorly. Black markings very intense. Inhabits Central America._ 



FeU^ cosiartccnsis, new species. 



It is probable that .some of the above forms intororade, and it i.s cer- 

 tain tliat other f orm.s remain to be described. The diversit}' and close 

 interrelationship of the species and regional forms of Ocelots, together 

 with the lack of adequate material in the hands of any investigator, 

 have given rise to the multiplication of synonjnus and misapplication 

 of names to such a degree that the group is now in a state of nomen- 

 clatorial confusion. The earlier descriptions were incomplete, espe- 

 cially with regard to the cranial and dental characters, and were 

 frequently based on young individuals, sometimes living ones, and 

 specimens from unknown localities, or of which the sex was unknown. 

 I have little expectation that my eiforts to disentangle the intricately 

 involved synonymy of the American Ocelots will be entirely success- 

 ful. At a later day, when the existing forms shall have been charac- 

 terized and the investigator can visit the museums of the Old \Yorld, 

 carrying with him the necessary materials for comparison with such 

 types as remain, it may become possible to establish more of the early 

 names than I have been able to do. Those which have received atten- 

 tion from me are the following: 



Pardalis (Felis). Linn.eu.s, 1766. Syst. Nat., 12th ed., I, p. 62, sp. 5 (based 

 . primarily on the Cato-pardus mexicanus of Hernandez). 



This, the earliest available name for an Ocelot, pertains to the species 

 of east-central Mexico. 



Mexicana (P[aiitliera]). Oken, 1816. Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, p. 1054. 



Under the genus F'elis^ an Ocelot from Mexico is described which is 

 pro))al)ly a .synonym of J^elis pardalis Linnjeus. The name is pre- 

 occupied by Fells niexlcana Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., VI, 

 1810, p. 112, applied to the Yagiiarundi Cat.^ 



Ocelot (Felis). .Smith, 1827. (iritfith's Animal Kingdom, II, p. 475. (South 

 America and ^Mexico.) 



Maj. Charles Hamilton Smith descril)ed and ligured four forms of 

 the Ocelot: Nos. 1, 2, 3, and!, including the Fd!^ pardaUxoi Linnivus, 

 which latter Griffith in the tifth volume of the same work identities 

 with the Ocelot No. 1 of Smith. Griffith (Vol. V, p. 167) gives the 

 new name cliihigouazou to Smith's Ocelot No. 1, thus restricting, ccc/oi! 



^ Felis mexicana Saussure, 1860, p. 1, is the Tiger-Cat of Mexico; and Panthera mex- 

 icana Fitzinger, Sitzungsber. , Akad. Wiss. Wien, LIX, 1869, p. 1260, is the Ocelot 

 No. 1 of Major Smith. 



