FELIS. 455 
Geogr. Distr. West coast of North America, east to Rocky 
Mountains, south into northern Mexico. 
Genl. Char. Size variable; tail long; color variable. 
Color. Upper parts and sides varying from dark to pale rufous 
brown, occasionally almost of a gray shade, darkest on dorsal region; 
tail above like back, with a black tip, beneath either white on basal 
portion, or all gray or grayish white; face with black patch on upper 
lip on each side of nose; top of head and nose darker than back; 
upper lip and throat white; belly white or grayish white, often tinged 
with rufous; ears behind black with a paler spot on center; front 
part of legs similar to body; hind part paler, often nearly white. 
Measurements. Total length, 2000-2600, often less than 2000; 
tail vertebre, 750-900; hind foot, 260-270. Skull: adults, occipito- 
nasal length, 175-202; Hensel, 144-167; zygomatic width, 124-142; 
interorbital constriction, 34—41.5; across postorbital processes, 63-75; 
without considering other causes. Color in these animals is equally unsatis- 
factory; for whenever many Puma skins from any locality are compared, their 
color will be seen to be mostly a matter of individual or seasonal variation. 
As to skull dimensions and characters, none have yet been given, so far as I 
have seen, that are permanent, by which I mean characters that are to be met 
with in ALL skulls from even the some locality. This being so, they cannot 
be depended upon or maintained; for the same characters may be, and indeed 
are, found in skulls of Pumas killed many miles apart. and which rejoice in 
different names. Dr. Merriam has separated the Puma from Colonia Garcia 
in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, as a distinct form under the name of F. 
hippolestes aztecus, giving such characters as ‘“‘narrow interorbital region; 
frontals elevated, arched; sagittal crest less highly developed; bulle variable; 
tail without white beneath, and a dull grayish fulvous color on the upper parts.”’ 
There are in the collection of the Field Columbian Museum five topotypes of this 
animal, varying in size and color, from one as large as a big northwest speci- 
men to a moderately sized individual, and in color from a rather pale hue to 
one indistinguishable from the Pumas of Montana and British Columbia, with 
which a comparison has been made, and also exhibiting tails with and without 
white beneath. The skulls do not average narrower in the interorbital region, 
in fact some are wider than those of their northern relatives, the frontals are 
neither more elevated nor arched, the sagittal crest is present in all, and varies 
in development, as will be the case in all cat skulls which have it at all. The 
bulle vary greatly in size in all, more so perhaps in the Chihuahua specimens 
than in the others, but there are more of them than from any other particular 
locality, so this fact cannot be definitely determined, but the variation among 
the Mexican specimens is so great as to prove that for form or size the dimensions 
of the bulla, in these examples at least, are worthless as specific char- 
acters. “Total length’ depends, as a rule, mainly upon the length of tail, 
and this member differs greatly in that respect in this family, the caudal ver- 
tebrz in some individuals of the same species and from the same locality often 
varying in number. This I have known to be the case among lions and other 
big cats. After a very careful investigation and comparison, therefore, of 
these Colonia Garcia specimens with those from the north and northwestern 
United States and British Columbia, I do not find a single intelligible charac- 
ter by which they can be separated, and have placed F. h. azlecus as a syno- 
nym of F. oregonensis Rafin, expressing at the same time very great doubts if 
this northwestern animal has any claims to be considered distinct from the 
Pumas inhabiting the other portions of the United States, no dependable char- 
acters having yet been suggested by which the animals of one section can be 
accurately and definitely distinguished at all times from those of another. 
