138 Wild Beasts 



also that developed ridges and processes are for the most 

 part merely concomitants of more massive skulls in 

 larger animals whose muscles are of greater size ; and that 

 bulk by itself means very little, and varies in most cases 

 very much. Finally, the coat-markings, in their minor 

 details, of all animals whose skins are variegated, constantly 

 differ in the same species. Among Felid<2 one scarcely 

 sees two lions with like manes, or two tigers with identical 

 stripes. As for the spotted or rosetted groups, their spots 

 not only vary in members of specific aggregates, but even 

 upon different sides of the same creature's body. 



Lockington ("Riverside Natural History") states that 

 "the leopard (including both varieties of Felis pardiis under 

 this term) is very variable in size and color." Stanley, 

 Emin Pasha (Dr. Schnitzer), and Hissman speak of 

 those in Somali-land as much larger than any others in 

 Africa, yet it is certain that there is but one true spe- 

 cies now extant, and that this includes those forms already 

 spoken of, together with the snow leopard of the Hima- 

 layas, the long-furred, ring-marked, bushy-tailed variety of 

 Manchuria and Corea, and the " black tiger " of India and 

 the Malasian Archipelago, which is nothing but a panther 

 with its colors reversed, — a "sport," as G. A. R. Dawson 

 (" Nilgiri Sporting Reminiscences ") calls it, and which 

 according to him is "of a uniform dull black color, with 

 its spots (of a fulvous tint) showing in particular lights." 

 Colonel A. C. McMaster proved that these dark cubs had 

 been found in litters having the usual coloration. Gen- 

 eral Hamilton demonstrated the same thing, and Colonel 

 Pollok (" Natural History Notes ") states that "the black 



