13 | Liovy’s NMPuRAL tisToRY. 
A complete transition from solid spots to transvetse stripes 
is not observable in any member of the Family, although an 
iiidication of the mode in which such a transition might be 
effected is afforded by the markings on the fore-quarters of some 
specimens of the Indian Desert-Cat (# ornata). The most 
perfect development of transverse dark stripes is to be met with 
in the Tiger (/ ¢/gris) and the Wild Cat (/ catus). From such 
fully striped species a transition can be traced through forms 
like the Caffre Cat (™ caffra) and the Flat-headed Cat 
(/. planiceps), in which, while the limbs remain more or less 
distinctly striped, the body has become more or less uni- 
formly tawny, to perfectly tawny species like the Bay Cat 
(F. éadius), the Eyra (& eyra), and the Lion (¥/. 4o). That 
the Bay Cat was originally a striped form may be inferred from 
its alliance to the Flat-headed Cat; while that the Licn has 
originated from a transversely striped species is evident from 
the occurrence of such stripes in the cubs. On the other hand, 
the indications of spots persisting on the fur of the Puma 
(/ puma) prove as clearly that in some instances a uni- 
formly tawny hue has been evolved from the spotted type 
of coloration. 
In a paper on the coloration of animals published by 
Professor Eimer, of Tiibingen, in the ‘ Jahreshefte Vereins fir 
Naturkiinde, Wiirttemberg,” for 1883, the author arrives at the 
conclusion that longitudinal dark stripes formed the primitive 
coloration of terrestrial vertebrates in general, and that these sub- 
sequently broke up into spots, while the latter again coalesced 
to form transverse stripes ; a uniform coloration being finally 
produced by the disappearance of the latter. Although the 
coloration of the existing /ée/rde can, as is evident from the 
foregoing observations, be explained on this hypothesis, yet 
there are several difficulties in accepting it altogether. In the 
first place, it has been shown that in the Puma a uniform 
