THE LEOPARD-CAT. 1 29 



Cats ; no less than six specimens of Felis rubiginosa, all but 

 one of which are from Ceylon, and the remaining specimens 

 from Nellore in Southern India ; and forty-two skins of 

 F. bengalensis and its allies. In going through the latter, 

 while I have been struck by the great variety exhibited, I 

 have been unable to trace a single character, external or 

 cranial, by which the various races can be distinguished. 

 There are doubtless several races, and, except that I cannot 

 see how F jerdoni is to be separated, even as a variety, from 

 F.javancnsis of Horsfield, those accepted as kinds by Professor 

 Mivart are fairly recognisable. There is perhaps one to be 

 added, the true Wagati of Sir W. Elliot, not the form that was 

 (I believe erroneously) described under that name by Dr. Gray. 

 The variation in dimensions is not nearly so great as in the 

 Leopard, and that in the markings is less than in the Ocelot. 



"Accepting, then, the view that all the forms of Leopard-Cat 

 are varieties of one species, which must be called Felis bengal- 

 ensis, the next question for determination is, whether the Cat 

 called F jerdoni by Blyth is a distinct form, as it has been 

 considered by Blyth and Mivart ; whether, as Jerdon sug- 

 gested, it is a small race of F. bengalensis, or whether, as 

 stated by Mr. D. G. Elliot, it is identical with a form of 

 F. rubiginosa. F jerdoni was founded by Blyth upon three 

 specimens, as he writes that, ' I first detected an adult male 

 and a kitten of this species in the Museum at Madras, and 

 find that there is an adult specimen also in the British 

 Museum.' There is now a second specimen in the latter 

 Museum, obtained from the East India Museum, and labelled 

 F jerdoni in Mr. Blyth's handwriting. On the stand of the 

 original specimen the name F jerdoni has also been written by 

 Mr. Blyth. The two specimens are precisely similar, and that 

 first in the Museum may be taken as the type of the species. 



"The markings of this specimen, as already mentioned, 

 7 K 



