THE LEOPARD AND THE CHEETAH 241 



Highland Leopard 



Felis pardus Jortis 

 Felts pardus fortis Heller, 1913, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 19, p. 5. 



Range. — Mau highlands of British East Africa; limits 

 of range unknown. 



The highland leopard is a large race, which attains the 

 maximum size, the skull exceeding in length that of any 

 other African or Asiatic race. The skull is further distin- 

 guishable by its narrowness, the small size of the tympanic 

 bullae, and the absence of the first upper premolar tooth. 

 The body size is large, with long pelage, dark coloration, and 

 numerous small, rosetted spots, the central color of which 

 is not differentiated in shade from the general ground-color. 

 Fortis resembles in color suahelica most, but is easily distin- 

 guishable by the darker ground-color, which is uniform in 

 shade with the central portion of the rosetted spots. Male 

 skulls of suahelica differ by their smaller size, the largest 

 being seven-eighths of an inch less in length than the type 

 of fortis, decidedly larger bullae, and by the presence of a 

 well-developed first upper premolar. The bullae in Jortis do 

 not rise to the level of the mastoid process, the skull when 

 placed on a level resting upon the bullae; but in suahelica 

 they extend well beyond the tips of the mastoid. 



The ground-color of the type on the median line of the 

 back is cinnamon-brown, paling on the sides to ochraceous- 

 tawny, and on the under-parts and inside of limbs to whitish 

 or pale buff. The rosetted spots on the back are small and 

 broken into two or three sections, the central portion being 

 uniform in color with the cinnamon-brown ground-color. 

 On the sides of the body the central portion is darker than 

 the ground-color, as usual among leopards. The under- 

 parts, legs, head, and basal part of the tail are marked by 

 solid black spots, the terminal portion of the tail being 

 solid blackish with a narrow median whitish band on the 

 under side. Ears tawny, like the ground-color of the head, 

 and marked by a broad band of black across the middle of 

 the back. 



The type is without flesh measurements, but the skull 



