410 



THE CAT. 



[CHAP. xii. 



The length of the head and body is nearly twenty- seven inches, 

 that of the tail from fourteen to nineteen inches. 



The animal ranges from Mexico to Paraguay, in warm lowlands 

 and well- wooded regions. 



An American variety of cat has been described by Hensel* as 

 Felis guttula. The account given does not make it clear that it 

 is a distinct species. The author's description is as follows : 



" Skull long and narrow, corresponding with that of F. macroura, 

 the facial part is smaller compared with the brain- case. Especially 

 striking is the height of the skull between the orbits. 



" Ground colour grey yellow ; two dark stripes on the head, 

 and a dark stripe from each eye to the forehead ; four stripes, 

 tolerably broad, run side by side together on the neck to the 

 shoulder. The sides of the neck are furnished with some dark 

 marks, and some dark brown or black spots are scattered over the 

 whole fur. In the middle of the back (where the ground colour is 

 darkest) there are narrow more or less short stripes, which some- 

 times run one into the other, forming longer stripes. On the flanks 

 the spots are larger and have a lighter centre, which, anteriorly, so 

 approaches the ground colour as to change the spots into rings. The 

 limbs are much spotted externally. The under parts are lighter (or 

 whitish) and less spotted. There is a white spot outside the external 

 ear. Tail reaching forwards to the arm, with ten or eleven rings 

 and a black tip. Size that of the domestic cat." 



Habitat, South Brazil Rio Grande do Sul. 



(21.) GEOFFROY'S CAT (Felis guigna}.^ 



The F. guigna of the British Museum was described by Dr. Gray f 

 by the name Pardalina Warwickii, under the impression that it 

 came from India, but was recognized by Dr. Sclater as being 

 the South American Cat described by D'0rbigny.|| The latter 

 animal is indeed so like the F. guigna of our National collection that 

 I cannot help identifying them as specifically the same, although 

 D'Orbigny's animal is not so much spotted. 



It may be described as follows : 



" Fur short, dusky whitish brown ; chin, streak on cheek, and 

 throat white ; chest and underside paler, black- spotted ; crown and 

 nape with four, cheek with two, and between the withers one black 

 streak ; the four feet and body covered with very numerous, equi- 

 distant, nearly equal-sized small black spots ; throat, chest, upper 



* Abhand. Akad. Berlin, 1872, p. 73. 



f Molina, Saggio sulla storia naturale 

 del Chili, i. Ausgb., p. 295. See Elliot's 

 Monograph, under the name Felis Geof- 

 froyi. See also a paper by Dr. Philippi, 

 in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1873, p. 8, 

 plate 3, where two views of an immature 

 skull are given. 



J Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, pp. 267 

 and 405, plate 25; and Catalogue of 

 Carnivora, p. 14. 



Pro. Zool. Soc., 1870, p. 706 ; and 

 1872, p. 203. 



|| D'Orbigny's Yoyage dans I'Amerique 

 Me'ridionale, Mammiieres, p. 21, plate 14 



