oo4 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
to this rule, but all I believe belong to one or the other of these 
patterns, for though when full grown the stripes are sometimes 
not perceived without difficulty, yet in most blacks they are 
discernable in certain lights. In black kittens they are often 
easily to be seen, but, as in the case of the cubs of the Lion, 
they become fainter as the animal grows older, but do not 
often, I believe, wholly disappear, as do the leonine stripes; the 
two shades (like those seen in the fur of-the so-called black 
variety of the Leopard) approach each other so nearly in depth as 
to be not easily distinguished. 
Pattern 1, which approaches nearest to that seen on the fur 
of the Wild Cat, and is often to be found in nearly the same 
colours, is I believe sometimes called “ tiger-striped” to dis- 
tinguish it from the other kind of tabby, though, excepting in the 
vertical direction of the stripes on the sides, it has in reality not 
much resemblance to a Tiger’s markings, but approaches nearer, 
I think, to those of the Serval. The lighter of the two tints 
forms the ground colour, which is adorned with darker markings, 
consisting of a dorsal line, often split into three, in which case the 
two outer ones are slightly broken into spots, which form a sort of 
starting-point for the narrow stripes which branch out nearly at 
right angles to the spine, partaking in some cats more of the 
character of spots than stripes. The dorsal line does not extend 
unbroken further forward than to a point between the shoulder- 
blades, sometimes not so far, being always most perfect over the 
loins ; it is in some cases rather obscure by reason of the ground 
colour being (as is the case with most mammius) darkest on the top 
of the back, without, in the present case, a corresponding variation 
in the depth of the markings, in consequence of which the two tints 
along the spine are often nearly the same. ‘The shoulders are 
covered with narrow wavy lines, the arrangement of which it is 
difficult to describe, but the curves of which harmonise in a 
beautiful manner with each other and those next to them. The 
stripes on the hind quarters are directed forwards and downwards, 
excepting those at the extreme posterior edge of the hams, the 
direction of which is backwards and downwards. ‘Those on the 
legs are wider and of a bolder character than the rest, and in both 
patterns are principally confined to the upper part of the limbs. 
Pattern 2.—In this arrangement of hues, which is the com- 
moner of the two, the relation of the two shades to each other is 
