76 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
merely varieties of a sing]@®pecies, they are alluded to under 
separate specific names. On the other hand, Mr. Sterndale is 
as firmly convinced that there are two distinct Indian species, 
which he names as above. 
With the advantage of all the information accumulated by 
his predecessors before him, Mr. Blanford—our best and latest 
authority on Indian Mammals—fully adopts the views of Blyth 
as to the specific unity of all these forms. We have already 
alluded to his opinion as to the impossibility of distinguishing 
between the skins of the larger and the smaller varieties found 
in India, and he adds the suggestion that even such distinction 
as there is between these two varieties may, in some cases, be 
largely due to differences of age. Here it may be mentioned 
that there is yet another variety, found in Persia, the so-called 
F. tulliana, characterised by the great length of the fur and 
the thickness of the tail, this form being, in fact, intermediate 
in this respect, and also in the shape of its spots, between the 
ordinary Indian Leopard and the Ounce, or Snow-Leopard. 
Mr. Blanford sums up the whole question by showing that 
both the African and the Persian varieties pass by insensible 
gradations into the ordinary form, and states that he cannot 
find any difference in the skulls, or evidence to satisfy him 
that there is any constant distinction between different races 
of Leopards, Pards, or Panthers. In this conclusion, so far 
as our own experience admits of our forming a judgment, we 
fully agree ; and we also consider it advisable to adopt the 
name of Leopard (Ze/is pardus) for the species of Spotted Cat 
common both to Africa and Asia. At the same time, we 
must guard ourselves against it being supposed that we adopt 
the views of the late Sir Samuel Baker, who seems to consider 
that every Spotted Cat may be included under the name of 
Leopard. Thus, when writing on the Leopard, he observes 
that ‘‘ different countries adopt special names for the varieties 
