THE CLOUDED LEOPARD 411 



would follow its master loose, like a dog, and was often brought into his drawing- 

 room when visitors were present. Jardine, writing of this animal, states that it was 

 extremely gentle and playful, and showed no symptoms of ferocity to the strangers 

 who came to see it. It motions were all free and graceful, and it exhibited the 

 greatest agility in leaping and swinging about the joists of a large unoccupied room 

 in the old college of Edinburgh. 



Fossil remains of the puma have been found in the superficial deposits of 

 several districts in the United States which probably belong to the Pleistocene 

 period. It may also be mentioned that fossil bones of the jaguar occur in the 

 celebrated caverns of L,agoa Santa, in Brazil, in company with those of a number 

 of gigantic extinct Mammals. Both these cats are, therefore, comparatively old 

 species. 



THE CLOUDED LEOPARD (Felts nebulosa)* 



With the clouded leopard, or, as it is often less appropriately called, the clouded 

 tiger, we revert to the cats of the Old World. This handsomely-colored animal, 

 which may be regarded as the last of the very large cats, is a long-bodied and 

 short-legged species, usually provided with a very long tail, and of thoroughly ar- 

 boreal habits. The head is of a more elongated form than in any of the species yet 

 noticed ; while the pupil of the eye is oval, with its longer diameter vertical. The 

 ground color of the fur varies from grayish to yellowish brown, passing into whitish 

 beneath ; the markings on the body taking the form of narrow vertical stripes and 

 blotches of black, which form large irregularly-arranged patches. On the sides of 

 the face there are always two distinct black stripes, arising respectively from behind 

 the eye, and from above the angle of the mouth ; of which the former extends be- 

 hind the ears to join the black markings of the back. The upper parts of the head 

 and the limbs are ornamented with spots ; while the tail has a number of dusky 

 rings, which are not infrequently incomplete. The skull may be recognized by its 

 low and elongated form , as well as by the great relative length of the upper tusks, 

 or canine teeth, which are proportionately longer than in any other living species of 

 cats. 



In size the clouded leopard may be compared to a small individual of a true 

 leopard. One male measured five feet seven and one-half inches in total length, of 

 which two feet six inches were taken up by the tail ; while another reached six and 

 one-half feet, of which three feet were occupied by the tail. The length of the tail 

 in these specimens is thus about equal to four-fifths of that of the head and body, 

 but there is a variety from the island of Formosa in which the tail is much shorter. 



The clouded leopard is confined to the southeastern parts of Asia, ranging 

 from the Eastern Himalayas, in the districts of Bhutan and Sikhim, to Assam, and 

 thence to Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and 

 Java. The short-tailed variety, found only in the island of Formosa, probably in- 

 dicates that the distribution of the series on the mainland of Asia was formerly 

 more extensive than at present. 



*Also known as F. macrocelis and F. diardi. 



