THE LEOPARD. 8 1 



sized spots, and by black rings with no central black spot, 

 distributed over the shoulders, back, and sides, while Milne- 

 Edwards describes those rings as very distinct on the scapular 

 region, the upper parts of the sides, and the back." 



It is added that Professor Milne-Edwards " has pointed 

 out certain characters by which he considers F. fontaniert 

 to be distinguished from the Leopards of India and Africa, 

 and also from the skull figured by Gray as Leopardus chinensis. 

 He attaches great importance to the short muzzle of the 

 northern Leopard, and states that the distance between the 

 alveolar border of the canine and the summit of the fronto- 

 nasal process of the maxilla equals the breadth between the 

 external borders of the infra-orbital foramina, while in F. 

 pardus the former measurement considerably exceeds the 

 latter; and he records that the relative proportion between 

 these parts is equally observable in the young as in the 

 adult of F. fontanieri. I have examined a series of five 

 skulls of F. pardus from India, all with reliable histories 

 and of different ages, but without any record of their sex; 

 and although they support the generalisation of the French 

 professor regarding the greater length of the first interval as 

 compared with the second in F pardus, measurements suggest 

 that considerable changes take place with advancing age in the 

 proportions between these two areas of the face in F pardus, 

 because in the youngest example they are nearly equal, as in 

 F. fontanieri, so that these measurements are not very reliable 

 guides to separate the two forms in youth. At the same 

 time, there can be no doubt that in the adult F pardus of 

 India the muzzle is not so deep, but is more elongated than in 

 F fontanieri, in which the frontals are more arched, with the 

 nasals in the same curve. In Leopardus chinensis, Gray,— a 

 fully adult animalj— there is the same short muzzle as in F 

 fontanieri" 



7 G 



