128 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY, 
can be divided into several more or less well-defined local 
races may be considered uf€oubted ; but whether to regard 
such races as species or sub-species may be open to ques- 
tion, although personally we prefer to follow Mr. Blanford 
in adopting the former view. Other writers have, however, 
thought differently ; Professor Mivart, for instance, in addition 
to the perfectly distinct / vubiginosa, regards the forms de- 
scribed under the names of / chinensis, F. gavanensis, F. jer- 
dont, F. minuta, and F, wagati, as entitled to specific rank. 
On this subject Mr. Blanford writes: ‘ Leds rubiginosa is 
classed by all as distinct, and of its distinctness there can be 
no question. ‘The anterior upper pre-molar is always wanting, 
at all events in adults, and the bony orbit in the skull is com- 
plete behind. In / dengalensis and its varieties, on the other 
hand, out of more than forty specimens examined, I have only 
seen two in which the anterior upper pre-molar is absent on 
both sides, and the orbit is never complete behind. There 
is also a character in the external coloration by which every 
specimen I have examined of both forms can be at once dis- 
tinguished. In all these Cats a variable number of interrupted 
dark lines pass from the forehead over the head and hind-neck 
to the interscapulary tract. Usually there are four well-marked 
bands on the head. Of these, the two innermost are continued 
between the shoulders in /. xudiginosa by two long, straight, 
slightly-diverging dark lines or spots between them. In 
F. bengalensis and its allies, there are never these two lines 
alone ; either the markings are all broken and interrupted, or 
other lines and spots intervene between the continuations of 
the two inner frontal bands. The tail, too, in / rudiginosa is 
unspotted above; in all forms of the Leopard-Cat distinctly 
spotted. 
“ There is in the Natural History Department of the British 
Museum a very fine series of these Indian and Malayan Spotted 
