FELIS VIVERRINA. 103 



Another large leopard is the Jaguar of S. America, F. onca, very 

 savage and dangerous, and of which a black variety is by no means 

 rare. 



Next come the Cats. Of smaller size, and with shorter tails. 



108. Felis viverrina. 



BENNETT, P. Z. S. 1833. BLYTH, Synops. 10. F. viverriceps, HODG- 

 SON. Figd. HARDWICKE, 111. Ind. Zool. IV. pi. 4. F. cclidogastcr, 

 TEMMINCK, apud GRAY and BLYTH, Cat. 179. F. himalayana, JARDINE, 

 Nat. Libr. pi. 2G. F. bengalensis apud BUCHANAN HAMILTON. Mach- 

 bagrul, also Bagh-dasha, Beng. 



THE LARGE TIGER-CAT. 



Descr. Of a mouse-gray colour, more or less deep, and sometimes 

 tinged with tawny, with large dark spots more or less numerous, oblong 

 on the back and neck, and in lines more or less rounded elsewhere, and 

 broken or coalescing ; cheeks white ; a black face-stripe ; beneath dull 

 white ; chest with five or six dark bands ; belly spotted ; tail with six 

 or seven dark bands and a black tip ; feet unspotted ; whiskers either 

 entirely white, or with a white tip. 



Length, head and body, 30 to 34 inches, and sometimes more ; tail 

 10 J to 12J ; height about 15 or 16 inches ; weight of one 17 Ib. The 

 ears are rather small and blunt, the pupil circular ; the fur coarse and 

 without any gloss ; the limbs short and very strong. The nasal bones 

 are somewhat attenuated, causing a narrowness of visage which has 

 suggested the names viverrina and viverriceps. In old animals the bony 

 orbital rings are complete. 



This large tiger-cat is found throughout Bengal up to the foot of the 

 south-eastern Himalayas, extending into Burmah, China, and Malayana. 

 I have not heard of its occurrence in Central India nor in the Carnatic, but 

 is tolerably common in Travancore and Ceylon, extending up the Malabar 

 coast as far as Mangalore. I have had one killed close to my house at 

 Tellicherry. In Bengal it inhabits low watery situations chiefly, and I 

 have often put it up on the edge of swampy thickets in Purneah. It is 

 said to be common in the Terai and marshy region at the foot of the 

 Himalayas, but apparently not extending further west than Nepal.. 

 Buchanan Hamilton remarks, "In the neighbourhood of Calcutta it would 



