10. FELIS. 25 



" Fur short, smooth, shiny, grej-, with a reddish tint, M'ith choco- 

 late or light brown spots ; spots on dorsal line obloug, the others 

 round ; cheek and Hps whitish, with small brown spots ; throat and 

 chest with six or seven half-circular brown bands ; lower parts and 

 inner side of the limbs pure white, with large round chocolate-brown 

 spots ; two bands of this colour on the inner side of the fore, and 

 four on the hind feet ; tail bay brown, with paler brown rings, end 

 black brown ; outer sui'face of the ears black ; claws white." 



? 18. Felis senegalensis. 



Felis senegalensis, Lesson, Guerins May. Zuol. Mamm. t. 10 ; Gray, 

 P. Z. S. 1807, pp. 272, 39o. 



Hub. Senegal. 



Very like F. viverrina from India. Can it be the same? 



Lesson, in the ' Magasin de Zoologie ' for 1839 (Mammiferes, 

 1. 10), has figured and described a Cat under the name of Felis sene- 

 (jaJensis, which is said to have been brought fi'om the river Senegal. 

 It is thus described : — " Felis rufo- fulvoque-griseus, siibtus rufes- 

 centi-albidus, auriculis latis intus albidis, supia nigerrimis cum 

 lunula nivea ; dorso et lateribus tribus vittis nigris nee non Uncis for- 

 matis e numerosissimis raaculis atris ; Cauda longa, rufescenti-grisea, 

 nigro maculata ; facie i-ufa, duabus lineis et naso aterrimis ; rostro 

 albo ; pedibus rufo-griseo punctatis." The description and the figure 

 do not agree with any of the three Cats from Africa in the British 

 Museum. 



The Felis neglecta, like the Serval, has no dark streak on the 

 cheek, which is so generally found in Cats. In Lesson's figm'e only 

 one throat-streak (the upper one in most other Cats) is marked, the 

 second streak mentioned in the description being from the side of 

 the forehead to the end of the nose. The tail in Lesson's figure is 

 longer in proportion to the body than the tail of the Serval, or of 

 anj' of the three African Cats here described ; and the belly is not 

 white, as it is in all of them and in F. celidor/aster of Temmiuck. 

 In some respects the Cat agrees with Felis viverrina of Bennett from 

 India (can there be any mistake in the African habitat ?) ; but the 

 streaks on the side of the face are different from those of that Cat, 

 which has two in the usual situation ; indeed the streak in Lesson's 

 figure is so unlike the streak in any Cat that I have seen that I 

 almost doubt whether the artist has correctly represented it as going 

 from the orbit to the middle of the front edge of the ear. 



The Cats from the West Coast of Africa are very little known ; 

 and, fortunately, there are in the British Museum the type speci- 

 mens on which three of the species have been founded, and of two 

 of them other and better specimens of the skins than those first 

 described have been received and are in the collection, showing the 

 distinctness of the species, which were each described from a single 

 imperfect skin. 



The three very distinct species of Spotted Cats from West Africa, 

 which have been described at different times bv Mr. Watcrhonsc. 



