128 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



can be divided into several more or less well-defined local 

 races may be considered undoubted j but whether to regard 

 such races as species or sub-species may be open to ques- 

 tion, although personally we prefer to follow Mr. Blanford 

 in adopting the former view. Other writers have, however, 

 thought differently ; Professor Mivart, for instance, in addition 

 to the perfectly distinct F rubiginosa, regards the forms de- 

 scribed under the names of F. chi?te?isis, F. javancnsis, F jer- 

 doni, F. minuta, and F, wjgati, as entitled to specific rank. 



On this subject Mr. Blanford writes : " Felis rubiginosa is 

 classed by all as distinct, and of its distinctness there can be 

 no question. The anterior upper pre-molar is always wanting, 

 at all events in adults, and the bony orbit in the skull is com- 

 plete behind. In F. be?igak?isis and its varieties, on the other 

 hand, out of more than forty specimens examined, I have only 

 seen two in which the anterior upper pre-molar is absent on 

 both sides, and the orbit is never complete behind. There 

 is also a character in the external coloration by which every 

 specimen I have examined of both forms can be at once dis- 

 tinguished. In all these Cats a variable number of interrupted 

 dark lines pass from the forehead over the head and hind-neck 

 to the interscapulary tract. Usually there are four well-marked 

 bands on the head. Of these, the two innermost are continued 

 between the shoulders in F. rubiginosa by two long, straight, 

 slightly-diverging dark lines or spots between them. In 

 F bengalensis and its allies, there are never these two lines 

 alone ; either the markings are all broken and interrupted, or 

 other lines and spots intervene between the continuations of 

 the two inner frontal bands. The tail, too, in F ?-ubiginosa is 

 unspotted above ; in all forms of the Leopard-Cat distinctly 

 spotted. 



" There is in the Natural History Department of the British 

 Museum a very fine series of these Indian and Malayan Spotted 



