10. I'ELIS. 21 



of these specimens, as there are adult as well as j'oung specimens of 

 the grey colour. 



Felts melanara (Ball, P. Z. S. 1844, p. 128) is a most strongly 

 marked specimen, and in the whole series of specimens in the Mu- 

 seum stands alone for the intensity and clearness of the markings, 

 both black, white, and fulvous. It may be a variety in which the 

 colours, especially the black, are verj' much more developed than 

 usual, and therefore the spots have become confluent, until the whole 

 animal may be described as black with white and fulvous spots. It 

 is not the common melanism, whei'e the whole fur has become moi'e 

 or less black, tlie black spots being only a little more intense. We 

 have an Ocelot of this latter variety in the British JLuseum ; but it 

 bears no resemblance to the type specimen described by Mr. Ball, 

 which is also in the Museum collection. 



In the British Museum there is a very small Spotted Ocelot, 

 which is here recorded as a species or variety under the name of 

 F. pardoides. 



The species or varieties are to a certain extent permanent ; the 

 young, in some instances at least, are like their parents ; and the 

 markings do not change with age (that is to say, they are the same 

 on the kitten as on the adult) ; and there are adult specimens that 

 are grey as well as fulvous, or fulvous and white ; so that the grey 

 colour does not depend on the youth of the specimen, as has been 

 suggested. 



ft Sinaller, small-heaih'd, spotted American Cats. Margay. 



Three species of small Spotted Cats have been described as inha- 

 biting South and Tropical America. All these three species may be 

 distinguished from the Ocelots {Felts pardiiia) by the smaller size 

 of the head, and the spots not being united together in chains ; but 

 the latter character is not to be observed in all Ocelots. As these 

 Cats, like the other Spotted Cats, vary greatly in the form, size, and 

 disposition of the spots, the determination of the species has been 

 attended with considerable difficulty, and it has been suggested that 

 perliaps there are more than one species of the long-taUed Ame- 

 rican Tiger Cat called F. macroui-a. There is a veiy large series of 

 specimens of the long-taUed species in the British Museum (two 

 Chatis and several Margays) from different localities. And if there 

 were not so many offering such different variations of the first 

 species in the collection (I had only a few selected specimens to 

 describe from), I should have been inclined to separate them into 

 more than one species ; indeed, in 1842, when we had only four or 

 five specimens, 1 did name one in the ' List of Mammalia' as a dis- 

 tinct species under the name of Leopitrdus tigviiiotdes. 



These three species may be easily distinguished from each other 

 by the kind and colour of the fur, and the colour and length of the 

 tail. Thus F. macroiira and F. ui'itls have soft bright fulvous fur. 



