781 



FELID^E. 



782 



died during the process of dentition soon after its arrival. 

 Horsfield gives the following dimensions : sex, female : 



Dr. 



Ft. In. 

 Length of the body and head, from the extremity of 



the nose to the root of the tail . . . .30 



Length of the tail 28 



Height at the shoulders 14 



Height at the rump 13 



Circumference of the abdomen 20 



Circumference of the neck 12 



Sir Stamford Raffles gives the following account of the manners 

 of the species from personal observation made on two individuals : 

 " Both specimens, while in a state of confinement, were remarkable 

 for good temper and playfulness ; no domestic kitten could be more 

 so ; they were always courting intercourse with persons passing by, 

 and in the expression of their countenance, which was always open 

 and smiling, showed the greatest delight when noticed, throwing 

 themselves on their backs, and delighting in being tickled and rubbed. 

 On board the ship there was a small Musi Dog, who used to play 

 round the cage and with the animal, and it was amusing to observe 

 the playfulness and tenderness with which the latter came in contact 

 with his inferior-sized companion. When fed with a fowl that died, 

 he seized the prey, and after sucking the blood and tearing it a little, 

 he amused himself for hours in throwing it about and jumping after 

 it in the manner that a cat plays with a mouse before it is quite 

 dead. He never seemed to look on man or children as prey, but as 

 companions; and the natives assert that when wild, they live 

 principally on poultry, birds, and the smaller kinds of deer. They 

 are not found in numbers, and may be considered rather a rare 

 animal, even in the southern part of Sumatra. Both specimens 

 were procured from the interior of Bencoolen, on the banks of the 

 Bencoolen River. They are generally found in the vicinity of 

 villages, and are not dreaded by the natives, except as far as they 

 may destroy the poultry. The natives assert that they sleep and 

 often lay wait for their prey on trees ; and from this circumstance 

 they derive the name of Dahan, which signifies the fork formed by 

 the branch of a tree, across which they are said to rest and occasionally 

 stretch themselves. Both specimens constantly amused themselves 

 in frequently jumping and clinging to the top of their cage, and 

 throwing a somerset, or twisting themselves round in the manner of 

 a squirrel when confined, the tail being extended and showing to 

 great advantage when so expanded." (' Zool. Journ.,' voL i.) 



Oynailurw, employed by M. Wagler to designate it as a genus. Thus, 

 as Mr. Bennett observes (' Tower Menagerie'), the Hunting Leopard, 

 uniting to the system of dentition, the general habit, and many of the 

 most striking peculiarities of the eats, some of the distinguishing 

 eatures, and much of the intelligence, the teachableness, and the 

 idelity of the dog, becomes a sort of connecting link between two 

 jroups of animals otherwise completely separated, and exhibiting 

 carcely any other character in common than the carnivorous propeu- 

 ities by which both are in a greater or less degree actuated and 

 nspired. " Intermediate," continues Mr. Bennett, " in size and shape 

 tween the leopard and the hound, he is slenderer in his body, more 

 elevated on his legs, and less flattened on the fore part of his head 

 than the former, while he is deficient in the peculiarly graceful and 

 engthened form, both of head and body, which characterises the 

 atter. His tail is entirely that of a cat ; and his limbs, although 

 more elongated than in any other species of that group, seem to be 

 >etter fitted for strong muscular exertion than for active and long- 

 continued speed." From these and other indications Mr. Bennett is 

 of opinion that the animal approaches much more nearly to the cats 

 ,han the dogs, and continues it among the former. The anatomy of 

 the Cheetah, as subsequently demonstrated by Professor Owen at a 

 meeting of the Zoological Society of London, shows indeed that, in 

 nternal structure, this leopard is undoubtedly feline : of its habits 

 we shall hereafter have occasion to speak. In the paper last above 

 alluded to, ' On the Anatomy of the Cheetah, Felis jubata, Schreb.,' 

 Professor Owen commenced by remarking on Felis as a truly natural 

 ;enus, and by observing that the anatomical structure of the animals 

 composing it offers even fewer differences than their outward forms. 

 The principal deviation from the common type was stated to be that 

 which obtains in the organs of voice of the Lion (and, as Mr. Martin 

 lias observed, in those of the Jaguar also), where the larynx is situated 

 at a considerable distance from the posterior margin of the bony 

 palate, the soft palate and the tongue being proportionally increased 

 in length, thus forming a gradually expanded passage, which leads 

 from the glottis, where the air is rendered so sonorous, to the mouth. 

 This structure, Professor Owen remarks, may contribute in the Lion 

 to produce the peculiar roar of that animal. 



RimaU'Dahan (Felil macrocelil). 



Dr. Horsneld, in the work above quoted, confirms the account o 

 Sir Stamford from his own observation on the individual that wat 

 lodged on its arrival in Exeter 'Change. The Doctor, who does no 

 appear to acquiesce in the identity of P. nebttloia with the Rimau 

 Dahan, gives in the same paper a most elaborate and accurate 

 description of the latter, to which we must refer our readers. Hi 

 also given a figure (pi. xxi.) from a drawing made by the late William 

 Daniell, Esq., R.A., a few days after the animal had been placed in 

 Exeter 'Change. 



We now come to a very interesting form, one of those gradation 

 by which Nature appears to pass from one type to another. The Pdit 

 jubala of Schreber, Chetah, Cheetah, or Hunting Leopard, exhibits 

 both in its external form and habits such a mixture of the Felin 

 and Canine tribe* as to justify apparently the appropriate nam 



Cheetah (Felil jubata ; Cynailurtu jubattu, Wagl.). 



In the Cats generally, it was stated, the connection of the os hyoides 

 to the cranium is not by a long elastic ligament, as in the Lion, but 

 by an uninterrupted series of bones. This latter structure exists in 

 the Cheetah. The Cheetah has also the circular -pupil of the Lion, 

 Tiger, Leopard, and Jaguar, and is perhaps the most diurnal of the 

 genus. In the form of the oesophagus, and in the transverse rugae of 

 its lower half, the Cheetah was stated to agree with the Lion ; and, 

 as in it and in the other species of Felit, the oesophagus was not 

 prolonged into the abdomen, but terminated immediately after passing 

 through the diaphragm in the stomach. This organ, according to 

 Professor Owen, has in the Cheetah all the peculiarities which are 

 found in the genus F dii. The intestines nlso agree in character with 

 those of that group ; and the csecum, as usual in it, is simple, having 

 none of the convolution which is found in the Dog. The liver, 

 pancreas, and spleen resembled those of the Cats generally ; as did 

 also the kidneys in the arborescent form of their superficial veins a 

 form however equally common, Professor Owen remarks, to the Vwer- 

 rida: and the Felidce, which also agree in having spiculse on the tongue. 

 The viscera of the thorax in the Cheetah agreed with those of the 

 Cats. The lytta, or rudiment of the lingual bone, so conspicuous in 

 the Dog, is reduced in it, as in the other feline animals, to a small 

 vestige. There was no bone of the penis, and the glans had retroverted 

 papilla. The elastic ligaments of the tmgual phalanges existed in 



