438 Mr. R. I. Pocock on the Pattern of tU 



The gi'ound-colour is a sandy or in parts a golden yellow 

 fading to white on the lips, the chin, the inter ramal area, 

 the chest, the posterior part of the belly, and the inner side of 

 the limbs. The underside of the tail is also whitish in the 

 middle line ; but the throat and the median part of the belly 

 are washed with yellow. There is a conspicuous and rather 

 large whitish patch over the inner half of the eye. The 

 back of the ears is jet-black with a narrow edging of white. 

 The pattern, which consists for the most part of spots, is so 

 abundant and diffused that the interspaces look like pale 

 stripes on a dark ground. The spots are rosette-spots like 

 those of an ounce, an Indian leopard, or a jaguar — that is to 

 say, they consist of a black or dusky brown more or less 

 broken up rim surrounding an area which, though much 

 lighter than the rim, is decidedly darker than the intervening- 

 spaces. Everywhere on the body and on the upper portion 

 of the limbs the spots are markedly wider than the inter- 

 spaces. On the upper surface of the head and along the 

 spine the spots are more heavily pigmented than elsewhere, 

 except on the hind leg between the knee and the hock and 

 on the distal end of the tail, where they are as black as on 

 the back. On the head the spots run into six rather con- 

 fused and broken up longitudinal stripes, two admedians 

 mostly blended together, which pass backwards from above the 

 eyes on to the nape of the neck, and two laterals on each side, 

 which converge inwards over the occiput and fuse with the 

 admedians on the fore part of the nape. The external of 

 these rises just above the ear on each side ; the internal 

 rises much further forwards above the inner angle of the eye. 

 As in the chitah {Cynailurus jubatus), there is a patch of 

 pigment extending downwards from the inner angle of the 

 eye to the white of the upper lip. There is also a patch of 

 black pigment above the outer half of the eye, and the area 

 of the cheek behind and below the eye is clouded with black. 

 On the sides of the neck and shoulders the pattern is obscure, 

 but where visible the spots show indications of transverse or 

 vertical arrangement. This transverse arrangement is very 

 clearly expressed upon the body, especially upon its thoracic 

 portion, where the spots are most manifestly transversely 

 or vertically elongated and not subcircular as in leopards 

 {F. pardus) and jaguars (F. onca), nor longitudinally elongate 



Their coloration agrees substantially with that of the examples described 

 above. None, however, are quite so heavily pigmented, though in some 

 the tigrine nature of the pattern is equally strong!}-, if not more strongly, 

 ia evidence. 



