44: "Mr. E. T. Pocock oti the smaU and 



smooth brain-case and short face. — Inchuling tJie Mexican and 

 Central-American tiger-cats, /''. ylancuhi, Thos., iciedii, Schinz., 

 and others. 



II. Size rather smaller. Fur harsher. Nape-hairs not reversed. 



Ground-colour darker. Skull long- and narrow, somewhat re- 

 sembling that of tlie jaguarondi, •with narrow brain-case and elon- 

 gated face. — F. {luftuln, llensel. 



III. Size smallest. Fur medium or harsh. Nape-hairs not reversed. 

 Skull small and delicate, with smooth brain-case and short face. 

 — F. pardinoides, Gray (F. giiicpia, llensel, nee Molina). 



IV. Group containing F. geoffrojii, d'Orb., and F. salinarum, Thos. 

 {=F. f/uir/tiri, Matsch., nee Mol.). 



Y. Group containing a small bright-coloured cat with a delicate skull 

 from Cayenne, and identified as F. tirjrina, Schreber. 



As Mr. Thomas remarks, doubt and confusion beset the 

 determination and nomenclature of the species concerned, 

 and the study of tiie group is beset with quite unusual diffi- 

 culties owing to the variaiions in pattern and cranial characters 

 exhibited byspecimens obtained together and clearly belonging 

 to the same species. 



The main circumstance which appears to have prompted 

 the publication of this paper by Thomas was the airival at 

 the British Museum of a collection of skins and skulls obtained 

 by A. Robert at Roca Nova, in Parana. 



Three of the skulls were sent to Berlin, and were compared 

 by Dr. Matschie with the skulls of species from Rio Grande 

 do 8iil which had been named by Hensol. One of them was 

 pronounced to be identical with the skull of the form identified 

 by llensel as macroura {=iciedii). It is, however, with the 

 other two that I am now principally concerned. One of 

 them — that of a male cat captured at an altitude of 930 to 

 1150 metres in Roca Nova, Parana — was declared by Matschie 

 to be specificall}^ inseparable from the skull of the form 

 described by Hensel as F. guttida. 



The second skull — that of a female with precisely the same 

 particulars on its label — was referred by Matschie to the form 

 identified by Hensel as F. gnigna, Mol. But, as Thomas 

 pointed out, this cat cannot, on the evidence, be considered 

 as precisely identical with the species so named by Molina, 

 because the latter came from Valdivia"^, on the western side 

 of the Andes. On the other hand, a comparison between the 

 Parana skull, declared b}^ Matschie to belong to F. guigna, 

 Hensel (nee Molina), and the skull of the type of F. pardi- 

 noides, Gray, for which no locality was known, enabled. 

 Thomas to synonymize Hensel's species with Gray's. This 

 was an important addition to our knowledge. 



* Philippi, Arch. Naturg. xxxix. pt. 1, p. 8 ("1873). 



