584 MERRIAM 



spot descending to skin of head at base of ear ; tail dark brown with a 

 darker streak along dorsal line, becoming black before reaching tip, 

 which is black all round. 



Cranial characters. — Skull large and rather massive ; nasals very 

 large, exceeding in length and breadth those of all other North 

 American forms ; sagittal crest long and high ; bullae medium or 

 rather small ; underjaw large and massive. Compared with P. 

 couguar from northern New York the skull is very much larger and 

 heavier (an ad. male having a basal length of 175 and a zygomatic 

 breadth of 152 contrasted with 158 and 135 in an old male from the 

 Adirondacks) ; the sagittal crest (obsolete in cotiguar) long and high 

 and reaching forward to frontal shield; nasals much larger, acutely 

 pointed posteriorly and with a strongly marked hump at juncture of 

 upper and middle thirds; frontals more flattened; bulUe slightly 

 larger ; teeth of the same size or very slightly larger ; underjaw more 

 massive (especially posterior part of horizontal ramus) and more 

 bellied below posterior part of tooth row. 



Comi:)ared with aziccus, with which it agrees essentially in size, 

 and which is decidedly its nearest relative, it may be distinguished by 

 the following characters: skull as a whole less massive; nasals very 

 much larger and longer, with a distinct angle or hump at junction of 

 upper and middle thirds ; posterior ends of nasals reaching back 

 nearly 10 mm. beyond plane of jjosterior endings of maxillae [in aztccus 

 the nasals and maxilkc end on essentially the same plane] ; sagittal 

 crest higher ; under jaw slightly more bellied below tooth row ; coro- 

 noid process longer and curved more strongly backward ; upper car- 

 nassial larger; middle upper premolar smaller (thinner and weaker) ; 

 lower carnassial slightly larger; first lower premolar smaller and 

 weaker. 



Re?t2arks. — The Florida Puma differs so markedly from its North 

 American congeners that a glance at either the skin or the skull is 

 sufficient to distinguish it, the intense rusty red of the back and the 

 great size of the nasal bones being characters not shared by any other 

 species. 



Individual skulls vary surprisingly in zygomatic breadth, as shown 

 in two adult males of nearly equal size from Sebastian, Florida, both 

 in the Bangs collection. One of these has a zygomatic breadth of 152 

 mm., and is very broad interorbitally. The other has a zygomatic 

 breadth of only 135 mm., and is correspondingly narrow interorbitally. 

 The nasals are largest in the narrowest skull, but are very broad and 

 large in both. 



