758 MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON VARIOUS FELID.E. [Dec. 5, 



perceptible, and the various markings, although true in position, are 

 almost of a dark brownish black, whilst the original greyish colour 

 of the ground has a larger element of fawn in it. 



I have no means of knowing with certainty from what point of 

 the hills this strongly marked variety was procured ; but it was re- 

 cently sent to me from Ceylon, and was obtained from the same 

 person, a collector at Kandy, in whose hands I saw the three speci- 

 mens previously mentioned. As most of the things which are 

 brought to this person are collected within a radius of twelve or fif- 

 teen miles of Kandy, it is very probable that this specimen was not 

 from any of the higher ranges of hills. 



P.S. — This variety has been examined by Dr. Jerdon and Mr. 

 Blvth, and has been pronounced by the latter to be the same as 

 that on which he founded his new Indian species, F.jerdoni (P. Z. S. 

 1863, p. 185). 



10. Remarks on various Species of Felicia;, with a Description 

 of a Species from North-Western Siberia. By D. G. 

 Elliot, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



[Received December 5, 1^71.] 



(Plate LXXVI.) 



Having had occasion lately to visit the Leyden Museum, in order 

 to make some investigations in the difficult group comprising the 

 genus Felix, I ascertained some facts which I consider may be useful 

 for naturalists to know, and have therefore embodied them in the 

 present communication. In the * Monographies de Mammalogie,' 

 published in 1827, Temminck described a Cat under the name of 

 Felis aurata, the type of which had been purchased from a London 

 dealer, and its habitat therefore not correctly known. The Golden 

 Cat from Sumatra, Borneo, and Nepal, named by Hodgson F. moor- 

 mensis (P. Z. S. 1832, p. 10), has been considered by mammalo- 

 gists generally to be the same as the one described by Temminck, and 

 it has been quoted and figured under the name of aurata in various 

 publications by the majority of authors. It was therefore with no 

 little surprise that, on seeing the typical F. aurata in Leyden, I 

 ascertained that it was not the F. moormensis of Hodgson, but a 

 species inhabiting the Gold Coast, which had been named rutila by 

 Waterhouse in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1842, 

 p. 130. The two animals from Nepal &c, and from Africa, resemble 

 each other in being both of a general red colour ; and therefore it 

 was excusable that authors, judging only from descriptions, and 

 not having seen Temminck's type, should have confounded it with 

 Hodgson's species, which, however, is very distinct. Prof. Schlegel 

 had intended to publish a memoir upon this species of M. Temminck, 

 in order to place the matter in its proper light, but gave up the pro- 



