46 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



in velvety black from the general body colour. The 

 long tail is belted with sable and tipped with tawny 

 grey. It may here be mentioned that the tail of the 

 clouded tiger, although of ample proportions, 

 suddenly becomes narrower in its posterior sixth, 

 ending in a blunt cone-like tip. This circumstance 

 appears to be unknown to the illustrators of natural 

 histories. 



Such then is a description of a typical Felis nebu- 

 losa ; but like so many of the cat tribe, this beautiful 

 beast exhibits great individual variation, some 

 examples being greyer, others more tawny than 

 normal. It should also be noted that, as remarked 

 by Horsfield long ago, a tawny suffusion apparently 

 increasing with age can be detected on the under 

 parts. Old specimens are deeper fulvous than their 

 juniors, while the blotches on the body tend to disap- 

 pear, only their black margins remaining.^ The 

 clouded tiger is an interesting beast to evolutionists ; 

 for if we accept Elmer's theory that striped mammals 

 have been developed from spotted ones by a gradual 

 elongation of the spots, then one has m Felis nebii/osa 

 the transformation actually taking place under one's 

 eyes. Even the vertical semi-rings of the young 

 animal are half-way between spots and stripes ; the 

 adult with the blotches faded away to mere marginal 

 streaks, and its coat brightened by a tawny-fulvous 



1 The yoiiny specimen in the Liverpool Museum (hibelled Felix caffra) 

 has the merest apology for blotches ; even the margins appear as mere 

 streaks. 



