578 MERRIAM 



time other names were proposed, some deliberately intended to 

 replace Linn^eus's concolo)-, others to distinguish forms belong- 

 ing to particular regions. But for a long time the name concolo?' 

 was used in a collective sense for the entire group and this prac- 

 tice has prevailed until very recently. In 1896 Cory recognized 

 the Florida Puma as distinct from concolor ; and in 1897 I de- 

 scribed as new two forms from the west — one from the northern 

 Rocky Mountains ; the other from the northwest coast region. 

 Of late the belief has spread that several quite different animals 

 were concealed under the name concolor^ but the absence of suf- 

 ficient material for comparison has delayed the revision of the 

 group. 



Recently the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President of the 

 United States, presented to the U. S. Biological Survey a series 

 of 12 skulls of the Rocky Mountain Cougar or Mountain Lion, 

 taken from animals killed by him in Colorado in January and 

 February of the present year (1901).' The examination of 

 these skulls led to comparisons with skulls from other localities, 

 and graduall}^ to a study of such specimens from various parts 

 of North and South America as could be easily brought together. 

 The more important conclusions resulting from this study are 

 here recorded. 



The Roosevelt series of skulls is of unusual value, not only 

 because each skull is accompanied by precise data giving the 

 color, measurement and weight of the animal from which it was 

 taken, but also and more particularly because the study of so 

 large a series from a single locality shows the nature of the 

 differences resulting from sex and age, affords an index to the 

 kind and quantity of individual variation, and sets a standard for 

 comparison with other members of the group — thereby furnish- 

 ing a means of estimating the probable value of particular 

 cranial or dental peculiarities observed in single skulls from re- 

 mote regions. 



A discussion of the variations presented by the Roosevelt 



'Since this paper was written Mr. Roosevelt has published, in Scribners 

 \tagazine (October and November, 1901), an account of his Colorado Cougar 

 hunt, in the course of which he discusses the habits of Cougars in general. His 

 article is by far the most noteworthy contribution thus far made to the life 

 history of these animals. 



