SERVAL 



435 



extend much farther forward on the body than is the case in a skin from 

 Uganda figured by Mr. R. I. Pocock on plate xxxviii of the Zoological 

 Society's Proceedings for 1907. Usually the number of rows of spots 

 or streaks, inclusive of the middle dorsal stripe (which may be double), 

 is about fifteen. 



On the other hand, in the West African race (Felts serval senegal- 

 ensis\ ranging from Senegambia to the Cameroons and Liberia, the 

 number of rows of spots and stripes, as shown in the plate cited above, 

 is certainly from seventeen to nineteen ; while the spots and streaks 

 themselves are usually smaller, more numerous, and placed closer 

 together. 



In the Togo race (F. s. togoensis} the markings are stated to be 





FIG. 93. A Black Serval, shot by the Master of Belhaven in British East Africa. 



still more numerous and closer, the total number of rows being given 

 at from twenty to twenty-four, of which from five to seven on the 

 middle line of the back form regular stripes. 



A figure of the West African race will be found in vol. ii. p. 701 

 of Sir H. H. Johnston's Liberia. 



Black servals appear to be by no means very uncommon. Many 

 years ago Mr. F. C. Selous presented to the British Museum the skin 

 of such a specimen from South Africa. And in the Zoologischer 

 Jakrbuch for 1897, vol. xii. p. 569, Dr. Einar Lonnberg described a 

 black serval from Angola, which he suggested might be known as 

 F. togoensis niger. Again, in the Fauna of South Africa, Mammals, vol. i. 

 p. 39, Mr. W. L. Sclatcr mentions a wholly black serval shot by Mr. 

 H. C. V. Hunter in the Kilimanjaro district some time previous to 1900, 

 and also refers to a very dark-coloured one killed at an earlier date in 



