412 : CARNIVORES. 
cat, with relatively longer legs. The pupil of the eye is circular in ordinary light, 
and the length of the tail usually varies from about one-third to rather less than 
one-half that of the head and body. Usually the head and body measure together 
from 24 to 26 inches, while the tail has a length of from 11 to 12 inches, or rather 
more. Although this species comes under the denomination of spotted cats, with the 
spots much longer than broad and without light centres, yet the amount of variation 
is so great that it is almost impossible to give a description that will hold good for 
all the varieties. The ground-colour of the upper-parts 1s, however, very generally 
some shade of pale tawny, varying from rufous to greyish; while the spots, which 
have a more or less marked tendency to form longitudinal lines, may be either 
wholly black, or partly black and partly brown. The spots extend over the under- 
THE LEOPARD-CAT (% nat. size), 
parts and limbs and the upper part of the tail; although the tip of the tail is 
barred. Four distinct longitudinal stripes on the forehead give a characteristic 
physiognomy to the head, these stripes being generally continued in a more or less 
distinct manner along the back. 
This eat is exclusively a forest-dwelling species, and is found in many parts of 
India, such as the outer Himalaya, as far westward as Simla, the greater part of 
Lower Bengal, the Western Ghats on the Bombay side of the peninsula, and the 
Wynaad and Travancore districts in Madras. According, however, to Mr. Blanford, 
it is probably unknown in Ceylon. Eastward of the Himalaya its range includes 
Assam, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, the southern part of China, and the islands of 
Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, as well as the Philippines. 
It would be tedious to indicate the different varieties of this cat, but it may be 
observed that, according to the writer last mentioned, while one set of varieties are 
characterised by the tendency to a grey tinge in the ground-colour, others display 
