MAMMALS FELIDAE FELIS CONCOLOR 85 



Head and body, 15 inches ; tail, with hairs, 5| inches. 



STcuU. The lateral profile of the skull of the American panther is gently convex, except a 

 slight concavity near the anterior extremity. When laid with the lower jaw in place on a table, 

 the most elevated portion of the skull is a little anterior to the centre of the profile. This 

 uppermost portion of the skull is somewhat flattened, and generally a little concave from side 

 to side. The top of the nose is rather flattened, and the posterior ends of the nasal bones are 

 united to the frontal in a sudden depression of the latter bone, so that there seems a decided 

 indentation in the top of the head at this point. There is a considerable concavity alongside of 

 the muzzle above the anterior base of the zygoma. The nasal processes of the temporal bone 

 are short, and do not reach as far as the anterior face of the anterior root of the zygoma ; it is 

 separated from the nasal process of the intermaxillary by nearly one-third the exterior margin 

 of the nasal bone, for which space the maxillary is in direct contact with the nasal. The most 

 remarkable peculiarity of tbe upper part of the skull is seen in two narrow laminae (one on 

 each side), which run upwards and inwards from the parietal bones through the frontal, and 

 are bounded by the temporal crests. These laminae are sometimes more than half an inch long, 

 and two lines wide. 



The posterior margin of the bony palate is somewhat like a gothic arch, pointed anteriorly. 

 The palato-maxillary suture is y\\- shaped, the acute angles anterior, the suture commencing in 

 a notch, just withinside of the last upper molar, and running forward and inward in a zigzag 

 manner, nearly opposite the middle of the second premolar, when it turns backwards and 

 inwards at a little less than a right angle, to meet its fellow in the middle of the palatine 

 suture ; this point is opposite the junction of the second and third premolars. The maxillo- 

 intermaxillary suture, passing in a slightly sinuous manner across from a little behind the 

 middle of the inner alveolar border of the canines, proceeds backwards and inwards to the max 

 illary suture, the line being nearly parallel to the re-entrant lines of the palato-maxillary suture. 

 There is a small portion of the incisive foramina in the maxillary as a small notch. These 

 foramina are large, elongated, and are deeply channelled out, anterior to the incisors. 



The bony palate is decidedly depressed at the anterior part of the palatine suture. There are 

 two distinct and flattened ridges along the outer limb of the palato-maxillary suture, continued 

 anteriorly to a line with the inner edges of the incisive foramina and the channels leading from 

 them ; exterior to these ridges is a longitudinal shallow concavity. 



The lower outline of the lower jaw is somewhat bow-shaped, a convexity anterior to the 

 middle, with a gentle concavity from this to either end. The anterior extremity of the jaw is 

 plane or obliquely truncate. 



The teeth of the cougar exhibit the same general structure with those of the other large cats ; 

 the canines are, however, very large and thick, and in no one of ten or more skulls have I ever 

 seen any indications of the two longitudinal grooves of the outer face of the upper canines, so 

 common in the cats, and most marked in the lynxes. 



I have not had an opportunity of comparing the skull of the cougar or American panther 

 with that of its nearest relative, in point of size, the jaguar ; judging from figures, however, it 

 is much the slenderer of the two. The proportions of the skull, namely, the greatest width 

 about two-thirds the axial length, appears the same as in the ocelot, Fells pardaLis. 



