small Mammals from South America. 45 



aiul p. andina. Black miclial stripes strongly marked in the 

 two males, narrow and discontinuous in the female. 



Skull on the whole with a rather less swollen brain-case 

 than in true jm^'dinoides and in F. p. andina. Postorbital 

 processes directed rather more outwards, less slanted back- 

 wards. Bullae smaller than in pardinoides, only one of the 

 four specimens having them as large as in the type of 

 andina, which in turn has them smaller than in S. -Brazilian 

 j)ardinoides. Teeth about as in parditioides, smaller than in 

 a7idina. 



Dimensions of the type (an adult female) : — 



Head and body 480 mm. ; tail 330 ; hind foot 98. 



Skull: greatest length 85; condylo-basal length 81*3; 

 zygomatic breadth 5*5 ; interorbital breadth 14*2 ; breadth of 

 brain-case 40; palatal length 31; front of canine to back 

 of p*^ 23'3 ; length of;/ on outer edge 9 (lO'l in (J ). 



-Hab. Northern Venezuela. Type from the " Montes de la 

 Culata," Mcrida (alt. 3000 m.); another specimen (melanistic) 

 from Tachira. 



Ti/pe. Adult female. B.M. no. 5. 7. 5. 3. Collected 

 .14th April, 1904, by S. Briceiio. Two males and another 

 female also in collection. 



The pale colour of the hairy part of the palms and soles of 

 this cat is an unusual character, and I have considered the 

 possibility of its having been artificially produced by the 

 limbs having been dipped in some preservative. But there 

 are four specimens, collected at considerable intervals of time, 

 all with their feet similarly coloured, so that so uniform an 

 alteration seems unlikely. In any case, however, on account 

 of the skull-characters described above and its comparatively 

 large ear-patches, the Merida wild cat would be subspecifi- 

 cally separable from its allies elsewhere. 



The Orisons of Chili and Argentina, 



In 1907 * I showed that the name vittatus, which had 

 been commonly used as a *' blanket-name^' for Grisons from 

 all parts of South America, was based on a specimen from 

 Surinam, and was therefore no doubt applicable to one of the 

 larger forms of the genus, like G. allamandi and others, and 

 I then gave the specific name of furax to the "Furao " of 

 S. Brazil and the Argentine, which is not only smaller than 

 the members of the vittatus group, but is distinguished by 

 having no inner cusp on the lower carnassial tooth. 



* Aun. k Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) xx. p. 103 (1907). 



