Its distinguishing characters. 547 



The Dose is delicately variegated with gray and black. The ears 

 exteriorly are black, with an irregular gray spot in the middle of the 

 lobe; interiorly these organs are gray, and covered with short 

 hairs, disposed near the anterior margin in a small tuft. 



The most distinguishing character is however afforded to our 

 animal, by the marks on the shoulders, and on the sides of the 

 body. These are oblong, irregular, of great breadth, transversely 

 disposed and connected on the shoulders; interrupted and angular, 

 on the sides and flanks. In all, the posterior margin has uni- 

 formly a deep velvet-black tint, and consists of a curved or irre- 

 gularly waving line. The marks, on the shoulders and on the 

 sides, are separated by narrow gray interstices, affording a tessel- 

 lated appearance to the covering. But no uniform or determinate 

 character prevails on the surface, and in different individuals a 

 slight diversity appears to exist : 1 shall however describe them, 

 from the specimen before me. Here the most conspicuous mark 

 is placed on the shoulders, and extends from the longitudinal 

 lines which pass along the spine, to the anterior extremities* 

 it is oblong and broad above; about the middle, the posterior 

 margin is contracted by a curve, and it is regularly rounded at 

 its lower extremity; the anterior border is perfectly regular and 

 transverse, but without any defined margin. Before this prin- 

 cipal mark, another discolouration extends from the neck to the 

 anterior portion of the fore-thighs: this is interrupted, in the 

 middle, by several dots, from which the borders proceed in a 

 waving direction ; a third mark, less distinctly defined, is placed 

 below the principal mark on the shoulders. On the sides of the 

 body, from the shoulders to the rump, the marks are interrupted 

 and have a partially oblique disposition, but a distribution into 

 three principal compartments can generally be traced; these 

 however vary in different individuals. They are in all cases sepa- 

 parated by transverse streaks, into smaller angular or rounded 

 spots, by which the tessellated character above mentioned is pro- 

 duced. In the specimen now before me these lateral marks are 

 subdivided and irregular : they were more connected in another 

 specimen which will be mentioned in the sequel. In a skin con- 

 tained in the Honourable East India Company's Museum, ob- 



