ALLEN: mammalia: felid^. 165 



Negro. Mr. Prichard, however, states^ that it is not now found south of 

 the Rio Colorado, although as late as about 1890, according to the same 

 authority, specimens were killed near the Rio Negro. 



The nomenclature and classification of the Felidae are in a far from 

 satisfactory state. Some authors, even in quite recent times, have referred 

 nearly all of the hundred and fifty or more species and subspecies to 

 the single genus Felis, with or without subgenera. According to Dr. 

 Palmer,- the generic and subgeneric names proposed for subdivisions of 

 the Linnaean genus Felis, for the existing species alone, number 58, ex- 

 cluding a number of alternative names not enumerated by him. The 

 family Felidae is by no means homogeneous, and may for convenience be 

 divided into a considerable number of superspecific groups, several of 

 which are clearly entitled to recognition as genera, while many others will 

 rank as either genera or subgenera, according to the individual predilec- 

 tion of systematists. In recent years more and more attention has been 

 given to the discrimination of local forms or subspecies, so that in many 

 instances groups formally considered as wide-ranging species have been 

 found to consist of a considerable number of more or less well-marked 

 types, each restricted to rather definite areas, and each apparently the prod- 

 uct of special climatic and other conditions of environment. In some 

 cases they appear to have become fully segregated "species," but in many 

 instances are believed to merge, through gradual geographic intergrada- 

 tion. In any case, the number of new forms believed to be entitled to 

 recognition in nomenclature has of late enormously increased. Groups 

 that formerly were looked upon as constituting a single species, now often 

 have the rank, numerically at least, of a superspecific (or subgeneric) 

 group, while assemblages of species formerly rated as subgenera seem to 

 acquire, from the standpoint alike of convenience and e.xact taxonomic 

 expression, an enhanced valuation. While the general tendency is to 

 recognize this higher rating of superspecific groups as consistent with the 

 finer ultimate divisions, a few eminent "splitters" exhibit an inconsistent 

 tendency to lump genera. 



The Felids of Patagonia and immediately adjacent territory (northward 

 to include Paraguay) fall into several quite distinct superspecific groups, 

 none of which are properly referable to the restricted genus Felis (type, 



'Through the Heart of Patagonia, 1902, pp. 68, 248. 

 Mndex Generum Mammalium, 1904, pp. 826-829. 



