MAMMALS. 



9 





J 



grayish, white ; these, however, are generally blotches on the upper surface, which sometimes 

 pass around as annuli to the lower surface, and are there interrupted by a narrow break ; some- 

 times they are alternated beneath by other blotches. 



The precise pattern of coloration on the body and head is difficult of expression, and varies 

 somewhat with the specimen. The edges of the orbit and the anterior canthus are dusky ; the 

 eyelids again and a spot above the anterior canthus are yellowish white. The insertion of the 

 whiskers is shown by four horizontal series of black dots. There is a narrow black stripe, 

 commencing below and parallel with the lower eyelid, and converging posteriorly a little 

 towards another starting from the posterior canthus of the eye. There are several blotches on 

 the side of the neck below the ear, and a row of the same passes across the throat below the 

 occiput, sometimes forming a complete gorget. Starting a little above the eye is a quite 

 distinct black stripe, (those of opposite sides nearly parallel,) and passing to the occiput 



inside of the ear ; between these, on the forehead, are four or five linear series of blotches more 

 or less continuous ; the upper part of the muzzle, however, is uniform brownish yellow. The 

 ears are black on their convexity, with a white spot near the posterior margin ; the hairs on the 

 concavity of the ear are of a dirty white. On each side of the neck above is a curved black 



* 



stripe, the convexity downwards ; between these are three others nearly straight and parallel, 

 one of them median. They all have the central line (or about one-third) of the light yellowish 

 ground color. On the sides of the neck are a few elongated full blotches, and beneath some few 

 rounded ones in the white ground. 



There is a vertebral series of rather angular, elongated lull spots of black, which are some- 

 times continuous for a space, then interrupted. On each side of this may be traced pretty dis- 

 tinctly a series of angular blotches, the centres of the much lighter ground color, and on the 

 sides exterior to these are still larger and more irregularly disposed ocellated blotches, with a 

 greater amount of paler centrally, the black border sometimes not continuous, and occasionally 

 with small full spots of black on the central ground. The intervals between these areolated 

 blotches are lighter and purer than the centres of the blotches themselves ; indeed^ in one speci- 

 men, there is a quite distinct and pretty regular reticulation of grey, with the meshes occupied 

 by the blotches described, namely, an exterior of black enclosing an area of dusky brownish 

 yellow, with an occasional black blotch. On the shoulders are several obliqu3 black lines, and 

 sometimes there are transverse lines of the same on the exterior of the arm. 



Measurements^ 



Point of nose to root of tail, 27 inches ; tail to end of vertebrae, 10.50 ; tail to end of hairs, 



11.00 ; ear above skull, 1.50. 



The largest skull I have seen (135S) is 5.30 inches long and 3.46 inches wide. 



This species is readily distinguished by its smaller size from the jaguar, the only other spotted 

 cat with long tail inhabiting the United States. There are, however, several species of nearly 

 the same size in South America, to which it approaches more or less. Felis macrura or oceloides^ 



with somewhat similar markings, is of considerably less size, (not larger than a house cat,) 

 has a tail as long as the body, (exclusive of the head,) instead of being not half this len 

 This species occurs in Brazil, where it is very common. The 

 also a much smaller animal, with about the same length of tail, and the markings resembling 



2^ m 



Felis 



