1885.] DR. GiJNTHER ON A VARIETY OF FELIS LEOPAUDUS. 243 



the eggs, I found that the majority averaged 0-24 inch in diameter. 

 Tlie cause of the failure in this instance may probably have been 

 more due to the young age of the male (a rising two-year-old) than 

 to its being a hybrid. Next winter, however, ought to set this 

 question at rest. 



November 12, 1884. — A female rising two-year-old hybrid Char 

 of the Struan ' race gave 146 eggs, out of which only six hatched on 

 February 3, 1885. 



November 12, 1884. — 4500 eggs of Lochleven Trout were milted 

 from a hybrid rising two-year-old of the Struan race ; they hatched 

 on February 2, 1885. Among them are many deformities, a few 

 dropsies ; while about half the ova hatched. 



Respecting the rising Struan two-year-old hybrids ^ they have 

 suffered from the winter more than any other form. Kept in plank- 

 pond no. 4, as December set in they began to be languid ; and one 

 or two having died, they were shifted into the old fario pond, no. 5, 

 on Dec. 24, when 74 fish were transferred. The next day 15 died, 

 and two on the 26th. Since then a few have succumbed ; and one on 

 Feb. 12. These fish seem, in their shallow pond, to have felt atmo- 

 spheric changes very severely, requiring deeper water into which 

 to descend, while it is very remarkable that the hybrid crosses 

 between the American Char and the Lochleven Trout (9 leopards and 

 146 zebras) were not so affected, although kept under precisely 

 similar surroundings. 



In continuation of the table of measurements of the eggs ' of 

 Grilse, Lochleven Trout, American Char, and those of the Struan 

 hybrids which I gave in my last paper, I have the following addi- 

 tional ones to record : — 



Salmo salar, 16 lb. weight : diameter of each egg 024 of an inch. 



,, ,, Howietoun Grilse : ,, „ 0*20 to 022 of an inch. 



„ tnitta, sma^i: „ „ 0-175 to 0-18 of an inch. 



„ leveimisis, 8 years old : „ a few 0'20, 0-22, most 0-24 inch. 



„ ,, 2 ,, „ each egg 0-17 of an inch. 



„ fontijMlia, 3 „ „ „ 017 of an inch. 



,, ,, 2 „ „ ,, 014 to 0-16 of an inch. 



Hybrid Char, Struan race „ ,, 0'15 of an inch. 



9. Note on a supposed Melanotic Variety of the Leopard, 

 from South Africa. By Dr. A. Gunther, F.Z.S. 



[Keceived March 3, 1885.] 



(Plate XVL) 



A few days ago Mr. F. Bowker brought to me the flat skin of a 

 "rare Leopard" which he had obtained at GTrahamstown. The 

 animal had been killed in a hilly district covered with dense scrub 

 and situated at a distance of about forty miles from the town. On 

 further inquiry I learned that a second specimen had been obtained in 



' Proc. Zool. Soc. 18:4, p. 587. ' L. c. p. .586. ■" L. c. p. 588. 



