150 BULLETIN 99, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Family FELIDiE. 



Genus ACINONYX Brookes. 



1828. Adnonyx Brookes, Cat. Anat. & Zool. Mus. Joshua Brookes, p. 16. (.1. 

 venatica.'^) 



1830. Cynailurus Waqler, Nat. Syst. Amphib., p. 30. (A. jubatus.) 

 1907. Adnonyx Elliot, Field Mus., Zool. ser., vol. 8, p. 396. 

 1911. Adnonyx Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 24, p. 225. Octo. 

 ber 31. 



The African cheetah, Adnonyx juhatus (Schreber),^ has been divided 

 into several subspecies by recent authors. Some of these geographic 

 races are doubtless well marked, but the practice of naming sub- 

 species based upon living animals in zoological parks and upon 

 descriptions taken from old works like Wagner, 1841, as applied by 

 Hilzheimer,'' can not be loo strongly condomned. The older accounts 

 of mammals are often too inaccurate for subspecitic determination and 

 zoological park specimens are frequently of uncertain origin. Cap- 

 tive animals are often traded and sold, and on the death of an indi- 

 vidual which is really the type-specimen of the race, all trace of it 

 has been lost and it is not preserved for reference in any collection. 

 The name applied to the form thus becomes iloubly doubtful, as no 

 description based upon a living anunal, however carefully prepared, 

 is sufficiently accurate for the determination of subspecies if the 

 exact locality is uncertain. Mammals kept in captivity in strange 

 climates change the color of the coat so d(!cidedly and so rapidly 

 that such accounts of fine differences in shade or tone of ground 

 color or markings are absolutely valueless. 



Colonel Roosevelt states that the cheetahs prey on the smaller 

 antelopes, occasionally taking something as big aa a half-grown 

 kongoni. Regarding the speed of the cheetah he writes: 



For a short run, up to say a quarter of a mile or even perhaps half a mile, they 

 are the swiftest animals on earth, and with a good start easily overtake the fastest 

 antelope; but their bolt is soon shot, and on the open plain they can readily be 

 galloped down with a horse.* 



For measurements of specimens of cheetahs see pages 153-154. 



1 The type-specie'^ of Acinonyz is Adnonyx venator Brookes, by monotypy. The name is a synonym of 

 Felis venatica Smith, Griffith's Cuvier, vol. 5, p. 160, 1837, the Indian cheetah. A reexamination of the 

 copy of Brookes's Catalogue in the Library of the Surgeon General's Office convinces me that the name 

 "Adnonyx guepard," which has been cited from Brookes, does not occur at any place in the work, even as 

 a nomen nudum. The names occur in this form: "Acinonyx. Gue'pard." (p. 33.) They signify the 

 technical and common names of the genus. The generic name Adnonyx and the specific name A . venator 

 are valid only on page 16 of the "Catalogue," where the genus is properly diagnosed. 



2 Dr. Max Hilzheimor has attempted to show that this name should apply to the Indian cheetah, on the 

 basis of the coloring of the wretched picture in Schreber's Siiuglhiere (pi. 105). The plate in question Is 

 barely identifiable as to genus, much less as to species or subspecies, and the type-locality of jubatus is fixed 

 as the Cape of Good Hope from Schreber's text (vol. 3, pp. 392-393). See Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash- 

 ington, vol. 24, pp. 225-226, October 31, 1911; Hilzheimer, Sitz.-ber. Gas. nat. Fr. Berlin, 1913, pp. 283-292; 

 and Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 27, p. 216, October 31, 1914. 



8 Sitz.-ber. Ges. nat. Freunde Berlin, 1913, pp. 283-292. 

 * African Game Trails, p. 124. 1910. 



