46 On South- American Felid^e. 



points to be noticed about it are: — (1) tlie postovbitul pro- 

 cesses of the frontal are short and spiniform; (2) the maxilla 

 is antero-posteriorlj expanded above and the plane of the 

 anterior nares is nearly upright ; (3) there is a distinct 

 although small thickening on the malar by the preorbital 

 foramen ; (4) the lower carnassial has a long heel. Tliis 

 combination of cranial characters, coupled with the backward 

 direction of the hairs on the neck, indicates, in my opinion, 

 affiliation between this species and forms related to F. j^ardi- 

 noides and dissociates it from the group represented \)y 

 F, iciedii [macroura). The interest of this view lies in the 

 circumstance that F. wiedi'i, until the publication of Thomas's 

 paper, was always regarded as specifically identical with 

 F. tiqrina, the latter name standing for the species. Since I 

 can discover no valid reason for dissenting from Tliomas's 

 determination of this cat as F. tigrina, Sclireb., but, on the 

 contrary, much that is in its favour *, it will be expedient, I 

 think, to adopt his proposal, and regard the specimen in the 

 Museum as embodying the characters of F. tigrina^ thus re- 

 leasing wiedii from the sj'nonymy of that species. 



Thus groups II., III., IV., and V. of Thomas's arrange- 

 ment may be fused into one, and the resulting assemblage 

 may be amplified by the inclusion of F. jaguarond'i, with its 

 colour-mutation eyra, an unspotted species svith which Thomas 

 did not deal. 



I have recently shown (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xix. 

 pp. 12^-132, 1917) that F. iciedii differs from F. geoffroyi^ sali- 

 narum, and jaguarondi in the structure of the feet, and that 

 F. pardalis vaseiwhles F. loiedli in that particular. In F.par- 

 dalis also the hair of the nape is always reversed in direction, 

 as is usually, at all events, the case in F. iviedii. As living- 

 animals these two species are often very difficult to distin- 

 guish except by size and the length of the tail. In my 

 Ojiinioii they are too closely related to be placed in different 

 groups, despite the differences in the skulls. 



Finally, there are the two species, or subspecies, known as 

 F. coloco/of and F. pajeros, which, as 1 have recently siiown 

 (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xviii. p. 329, 1916), differ in tiie 



* It is true tliat Buffon's figure of the margay, reproduced by Schreber, 

 suggerits a Ciit with rather a bolder pattern, a longer tail, and spots on 

 the middle of the forehead ; but it would, I think, be hypercritical to 

 expect complete accuracy in an antique illustration. 



t The cranial differences between these two forms described by 

 Philippi do not exist. That author's example of F. colocolo appears to 

 me to have been a menagerie-reared specimen, judging from the peculiar 

 shape uf the skull. 



