the Lynxes, but not thoii' long legs, have a skull like that of the 

 Domestic Cat, 



The Felis macroceUs has very long, rather compressed canine 

 teeth in the upper and lower jaws. Its skull presents the nearest 

 approach to those of the fossil Cats with very long sharp-edged 

 canines, such as Felis cultridens of England, Germany, France, and 

 Italy, F. megatherion and F. smilodon of Brazil. The latter has ex- 

 ceedingly long, sword-like canines in the upper jaw. These animals 

 form the genera Machairodus and A(/notherium of Kaup (see Blaui- 

 ville, Osteographie, FcIis, t. 17 & 20). 



In most Felidce the orbits are furnished with an imperfect bony 

 ring; in F. viverrina, F. suhrugosa, F. planiceps, and some other 

 spotted Cats these orbits are complete even at an early age. 



The Domestic Cat has nocturnal eyes, with elongated erect 

 pupils ; and this has generally been given as the character of the 

 entire genus ; but the Lion, Tiger, Leopard, and some of the other 

 larger sijccics have round pupils, and do not, under any circum- 

 stances, ever contract them into an erect linear shape ; so their eyes 

 may be called diurnal eyes. 



The Domestic Cat, and the species of the genus that are known 

 to have nocturnal eyes ■with linear erect pupils when contracted, 

 have very large eyeballs and large orbits in the skull, while the 

 Lion and other Cats, which are known to have diurnal eyes, have 

 moderate- sized eyeballs and orbits. 



Observing that the Cats which are well Icnown to have vertical 

 pupils have large eyeballs and orbits in the skull, I have taken it 

 for granted that all Cats which have large orbits in the skull have 

 vertical pupils. This is important, as we can observe the size of the 

 orbit in museums, while the form of the pupil can only be obsei'ved 

 in the living animal. The animals which have nocturnal eyes, gene- 

 rally have short small faces to the skulls ; but Felis viverrina, 

 which certainly has nocturnal eyes, has a rather elongated nose to 

 the skull. 



As regards the form of the pupil in the Felidce there is a great 

 want of information. Years ago I remarked that, contrary to the 

 general belief, the larger species, such as the Lion, the Tiger, the 

 Leopard, the Jaguar, and some other species, had round pupils, 

 and I therefore separated them from the true Cats, which had 

 linear erect pupils; but the number of species that belonged to 

 each group was left for further verification. Very few zoologists 

 have noted the form of the pupils in the species they have de- 

 scribed. Sometimes two observations on the same species do not 

 coincide : thus Burmeister describes the pupils of the eyes of F. 

 jaguarondi and F. cgra as round ; but Berlandier represents the 

 pupils of the latter {F. egra) as linear and vertical. Then Mr. 

 Hodgson has figured the pupil of F. macroceUs as circular ; but Mr. 

 Bartlett says that in tlie example living in the Society's Gardens it 

 is oblong erect. 



Mr. Bryan Hodgson had prepared b)' native artists a scrit'S of 

 drawings of Nepalcsc animals from life, with the intention of pub- 



