354 



ONCE. 



Fells Uncia. F. cauda elongata, corpore albido, maculis irregula- 



ribus nigris. Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 77. 

 C. with long tail and whitish body, with irregular black marks. 

 L'Once. Buff". 9. p. i$i.pl. 13. 

 Once. Pennant Quadr. L. p. 285. 



THIS species is scarce inferior in size to the 

 Leopard. Its colour is dull white, with a slight 

 yellowish or tawny cast, and the whole is scat- 

 tered over with differently sized spots and mark- 

 ings of black. About the head these spots are 

 small, numerous, and roundish; along the back 

 they form a kind of abrupt or irregularly inter- 

 rupted stripes, while on the sides and limbs they 

 are variously shaped, forming in some places an- 

 gular and in others somewhat round or oval 

 marks, with a central space included, and on the 

 legs and tail they are black and scattered. In its 

 general form the animal seems much allied to the 

 Leopard. It seems not to have been distinctly 

 described by any modern author till the time of 

 Buffon ; but it is supposed to have been known to 

 the ancients, and to have been the smaller Pan- 

 ther of Oppian, and the Panthera of Pliny. It 

 should be here observed, that the name Uncia, 

 Once, or Ounce, has, by Gesner and some other 

 naturalists, been applied to the Leopard; and this 

 confusion of names among naturalists has greatly 

 tended to obscure the real knowledge of this dif- 



