Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of FeKne Animals. 351 



XLII. — List oftJie Species of Feline Animals (Felidse). 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



It will perhaps facilitate the study of the species of Feline 

 animals to give a list of the sixty species which are contained 

 in the British Museum, and of the two or three well-established 

 species that are not in the Collection, but which we hope soon 

 to acquire. 



The species of Cats in the accompanying list are in every 

 case made out by the comparison of a series of specimens of 

 each species, which has been carefully made ; and they are 

 arranged in the Museum side by side, so that any person can 

 verify for himself the authority for the species, which is a very 

 different thing from the comparison of figures or descriptions. 



I do not undertake to demonstrate that every kind of cat in 

 the list is a distinct species ; but I consider that they are so 

 as far as the specimens in our collection allow us to judge. 

 If, however, other specimens should show that what I have 

 regarded as species are only varieties, the variations will exist 

 between two specimens put in the same division and probably 

 placed next to each other. Thus I will not undertake to say 

 that all the species of Ocelots are distinct and permanent 

 species ; but they are all arranged together, and it is the same 

 with some other groups. 



Since my revision of the Cats was published, Messrs. Blyth, 

 Jerdon, Elliot, and others of the same school of naturalists 

 have proposed to regard several of the specimens on which I 

 had established species as only variations of other species. 

 I have carefully reexamined all these specimens, and com- 

 pared the animals and their skulls. The naturalists above re- 

 ferred to seem to have overlooked the characters afforded by 

 the latter, and I have not generally found their observations 

 well founded. 



The synonymy of the Cats is exceedingly confused ; indeed 

 it would look as if several authors had made their synonyma 

 entirely from memory, without the comparison of specimens. 

 The figures in Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and Cuvier's '■ Histoire 

 Naturelle des Mammiferes ' are generally very good, except 

 in the tail being frequently made too long for the animal — as 

 I have observed on a former occasion, longer than it is said 

 to be in the descriptions that accompany the plates, as Felis 

 cJiaus for example, where the length of the tail makes the 

 figure more resemble tlie steppe-cat of Bokhara {Chaus caii- 

 datus) than the common jungle-cat of India, which it is named 

 on the plate. 



As an instance of inaccuracy in quotation one may cite the 



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