SPOTTED AND STRIPED MAMMALS 



27 



a 



Si 



s 



young animal in the Natural History Museum (case 13), ticketed 

 as a young Jaguar, has no spots at all, but is of a uniform brown. 



The variations in the disposition of the rosettes of Leopards are 

 very considerable. In 

 some specimens they 

 are distributed irregu- 

 larly, in others they 

 occur in slanting rows, 

 as in Fig. 1 5 (a). Where 

 they are crowded, two 

 or more fuse into an 

 elongated ocellus, as 

 in (). The Fig. 59 

 shows how numerous 

 are the variations in 

 individual rosettes. 



We should make a 

 distinction between the 

 general colour and the 

 spot or rosette colour ; 

 both, as I said, are 

 liable to vary inde- 

 pendently. The Cheetah 



and the Dalmatian 

 -p. 11 i , , i 



:Q ' 



while the Deer is white- 

 spotted. The ordinary Leopard has a general tan colour, the 

 melanoid a general brown colour, and the Snow-leopard x a general 

 white colour, although the rosettes remain black in all cases. 



1 Of two Snow-leopards in the Tring Museum, one has ocellated rosettes, and the 

 other has a large number of the rosettes solid, especially on the shoulders, haunches, 

 and lower part of flanks. 



FIG. 15 (Diagrammatic disposition of leopard mark- 

 ings, both taken roughly from skins in furriers' windows. 



(a) Rows of rosettes, which might fuse into stripes. 



(b) Fusion of two or more rosettes. 



