On Felis chaus and its Allies. 291 



XXXIII. — Felis chaus and its Allies, with Descriptions of 

 new Subspecies. By W. E. DE WlNTON. 



The British Museum has lately received a fine series of the 

 short-tailed Cats of the Chaus group from Egypt, collected 

 and presented by Mr. R. J. Cunninghame. While comparing 

 these with the typical Chaus from West-Central Asia, Mr. Old- 

 field Thomas drew my attention to a specimen from Palestine 

 which has been in the Museum for some thirty years, and 

 kindly suggested that 1 should overhaul the whole of this 

 group. 



The result of my investigation is given below, and to make 

 the paper as concise as possible I limit it to a list of the 

 several forms, with a table of measurements of the teeth and 

 skulls. One form — Felis chaus pallida (Buchn. Bull. Ac. 

 St. Pe'tersb. 1892, iii. p. 341), from the province of Gensan in 

 China — I have not seen, but it is said to belong to this group. 



Felis chaus typica. 



Felis chaus, Giildenst. Nov. Coram, Ac. Petrop. xx. 1776, p. 483. 

 Felis catolynx, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-As. i. p. 23 (1811). 



The type of Giildenstadt's species came from the shores of 

 the Caspian Sea. The True Chaus is found in the Caucasus, 

 Persia, and Turkestan. Pallas simply renamed the same 

 animal, as it was not quite clear that Giildenstadt had given 

 the name in the orthodox manner, but only generically, as 

 distinguished from Felis and Lynchus ; however, the name 

 was used specifically by other writers in the meantime, so that 

 it must in any case be the proper name for the animal, 

 and I follow all recent writers in giving the credit to 

 Giildenstadt. 



Felis chaus affinis. 



Felis affinis, Gray, 111. Ind. Zool. i. pi. iii. (1830). 



Felis kiitas, Pearson, J. A. S. B. i. 1832, p. 75. 



Felis (Lynchus) erythrotis, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. 1836, p. 233. 



Felis Jacquemontii, Geoffroy, Jacquemont's Voy. p. 58 (1844). 



The Indian Chaus or Jungle-Cat is readily distinguished 

 from the True Chaus by its rather longer tail, bright fox-red 

 ears, and lighter build. The skull is narrower and the teeth 

 are not nearly so heavy and not so crowded together. The 

 British Museum contains a number of specimens from Nepal, 

 the Punjab, Rajpootana, and the Central Provinces. Gray's 

 type came from Gangootra. 



