ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY, 14/ 



plexing than in that of canis, and though the labours of F. 

 Cuvier, Temminck, and others have expunged several nominal 

 species from the American fauna, no dependance can be placed 

 on the accounts which previous writers have given of their dis- 

 tribution. Temminck has remarked that there is no proof of 

 either /<?/?■* onca or pardalis having been killed in North Ame- 

 rica ; but both these and the puma, or cougar {concolor), are 

 mentioned by Lichtenstein as inhabitants of Mexico, probably on 

 the authority of specimens communicated by Messrs. Deppe and 

 Schiede. The puma is decidedly common to North and South 

 America: Langsdorff observed it in Upper California, Dr. 

 Godman adduces authenticated instances of its having been 

 killed in Kentucky and New York, and it is said to have strayed 

 occasionally as far north as Canada. The existence of the ja- 

 guar (onca) within the limits of the United States is more 

 doubtful, though Lewis and Clark say that they saw it on the 

 banks of the Columbia, and Dr. Harlan includes both it and the 

 ocelot {pardalis) in his fauna of the United States. In neither 

 case, however, have we any information respecting the means 

 used for identifying the species ; and as felis mitis, now known 

 to range northwards to Mexico*, was confounded with jjardalis 

 until its peculiar characters were pointed out by F. Cuvier, we 

 are not in a condition to say which of the two enter the United 

 States, if, indeed, either of them come so far north. According 

 to Temminck, felis rufa inhabits every part of the United 

 States, but does not exist in Canada : it ranges to the banks of 

 the Columbia, and Mr. Bullock found it in Mexico. The pee- 

 shew, or felis canadensis, is the most northern of the cat-kind, 

 being, in fact, the only species which extends beyond the Ca- 

 nada lakes, whence it ranges through the woody districts of the 

 fur- countries up to the 66th parallel. Temminck states that it 

 is also an inhabitant of the northern parts of the Old World, 

 and he has therefore proposed to change its name to horealis. 

 The name oi canadensis having been occasionally given to the bay 

 lynx by the naturalists of the United States, erroneous impres- 

 sions of the southerly range of the former have been produced. 

 Felis carolinensis and mexicana of Desmarest, and montana, 

 Jioridana, and aurea of Rafinesque, are doubtful species, the 

 occurrence of whose names in systematic works shows the ne- 

 cessity for extended and correct observations by resident natu- 

 ralists. The lynx fasciatus of the latter author is founded upon 

 Lewis and Clark's description of a cat killed by them on the 

 banks of the Columbia ; but the species requires further eluci- 



• Lichtenstein. It is supposed to be the jngiiar of New Spain of Biiffou. 



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