628 mil. w. T. BLANFORD ON TH K [Dec. 6, 



ground-colour, in the size of the animal, and in the length of the tail, 

 together with modifications in the form of the skull, have been 

 regarded as specific, and a great number of specific names have 

 consequently been proposed for the forms found in those parts of 

 the Oriental region throughout which this type of Cats ranges. By 

 others these differences have been treated as insufficient to justify 

 sj)ecific distinction, and it has been urged that such diffei'ences as 

 exist are not constant. As typical of the first class, Ur. Gray and 

 Dr. Fitzinger may be quoted, of the latter Mr. Bl}th. 



Dr. Gray, in his latest work on the subject, the Catalogue of 

 Carnivorous, Pachydermatous, and Edentate Mammalia in the British 

 Museum (1869)\ enumerates as distinct F. minuta (syn. F. suma- 

 trana) from Sumatra, F. javanensis from Java, F. nepalensis fi'om 

 "India," "perhaps a hybrid or domesticated," F. cAi/jewsw from 

 {l,Wm?i,F.pardinoides from "India," F . pardochroa hom Nepal, and 

 a variety from Tenasserim, F. tenas&erimensis from " India, Tenas- 

 serim," F. jerdoni from " Indian peninsula, Madras," F. herschelii 

 from India, "Zanzibar?" {sic), and F. wnyati from " India." Of 

 these the form termed F. pardinoides has, I beUeve, since been 

 ascertained to have been derived, not from India, but from South 

 America. Viverrkeps ellioti from " Madras," however, appears to 

 belong to the same type as F, bengalensis, and to have no relation 

 to either of the three very diverse forms, F. viverrina, F. planiceps, 

 and F. rubigiiiosu, that are, on what principle it is difficult to 

 conceive, associated togetlier to form tiie genus Viverriceps. Two 

 other names formerly given by Dr. Gray, Leopardus horsfieldii'^ 

 from the Himalayas, and L. reevesii^ from China, are omitted from 

 tiie Catalogue ; both were probably given to forms of the " Leopard- 

 cat," 



Mr. Biyth, whose latest publication ^ on the subject was consider- 

 ably earlier in date than eitlier Dr. Gray's or Dr. Fitzinger' s, classed all 

 the various Asiatic Spotted Cats to which the names above enumerated 

 had been given by Horsfield, Temminck, Hodgson, Gray, and 

 others, as forms of F. bengalensis, Desmoulins. He, however, 

 named a supposed distinct species, F. jerdoni, separating it on 

 account of its smaller size, although it was very similar in its 

 markings. 



In the same writer's ' Catalogue of the Mammals and Birds of 

 Burma,' published ^ after his death in 1H75, the name of F. undata, 

 Desmarest, was adopted for the Leopard-cat. 



' A considerable proportion of this work, as is well known, was reprinted 

 from papers published in the Society's Proceedings for lbG4, 18G5, 1SG7 and 

 1868. 



■' Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. s. p. 260 (1842). 



3 Cat. Mamm. B. M. 1843, p. 44. 



* P. Z. S. 1863, p. 184. The only apparent difference between the views 

 there expressed and those published in the same author's Catalogue of the 

 Mammalia in the Museum Asiatic Society, p. 60, published in the same year, 

 1863, but written a year or two previously, is that F. jerdoni is proposed as a 

 distinct species in the first^mentioned paper only. 



■^ J. A. S. P.. xliv. pt. 2, extra number, p. 27. 



