594 MERRIAM 



region elevated and set forward ; ascending arms of maxillje much 

 more nearly vertical than in J^. puma; interorbital region rather 

 broad ; sagittal crest absent or only slightly developed ; nasals short, 

 broad and blunt posteriorly ; no pit in frontal over apex of nasals 

 [present in all other species] ; suture between basi-sphenoid and pre- 

 sphenoid closed in adults ; presphenoid very broadly exposed, its base 

 broader than in any other species ; pterygoid wings correspondingly re- 

 duced ; under javj srnall, light afid straight^ not enlarged or swollen 

 beneath the teeth ; symphysis shorty truncate, and more anterior than 

 in the other species ; bullae rather large ; ratio of zygomatic breadth 

 to basal length in an ad. ^ 80; teeth rather large; upper carnassial 

 distinctive, having a well-marked salient angle on outer side between 

 middle (paracone) and posterior (metacone) cusps, which is not pres- 

 ent in any other species. 



Compared with F. batigsi from Colombia and Peru, the skull of 

 concolor is larger ; f rontals decidedly more elevated ; bulhe larger ; teeth, 

 particularly carnassial and middle upper premolar, larger ; upper car- 

 nassial with a salient angle on outer side as already described. Com- 

 pared with F. puma from Chile the skull as a whole is lighter, frontals 

 more elevated; 2d premolars, above and below, very much smaller; 

 crown of lower carnassial much shorter and more swollen. (For more 

 detailed comparison see under F. puma.) 



Compared with the North American members of the group, Felis 

 concolor irovn Brazil differs markedly in cranial characters. The skull 

 as a whole is lighter, the braincase thinner and more smoothly rounded, 

 and in the specimens at hand devoid of sagittal crest. The nasal bones 

 are more bluntly truncate posteriorly than in any skulls I have seen from 

 Mexico or the United States, and the pit at point of junction with the 

 frontal bone is absent. The presphenoid, viewed from below, is much 

 more broadly exposed, and the pterygoid wings are correspondingly 

 shortened. The under jaw is straighter and lighter than in any of the 

 North American forms and lacks the usual swelling beneath the teeth ; 

 the lower border of the ramus is slender, narrow, and straight ; the 

 symphysis is shorter, more anterior, and more truncate. In an adult 

 male from Sao Paulo, Brazil (No. 1001 18) the bullae are enormously 

 inflated and the inflation is much broader than in any others I have 

 seen. The only approach to it is in a specimen from Colonia Garcia, 

 Chihuahua, Mexico (No. 99659), in which the posterior part of the 

 bulla is greatly swollen, but the anterior part is abruptly narrowed. 

 The skull in question from Colonia Garcia is abnormal in this respect, 

 the bullae being strikingly larger than in other specimens from the same 



