1867.] BR- J. E- GRAY ON THE FELID^. 403 



My Leopai'diis pictus (Mag. N. H. x. 260, 1842) is one of the 

 larger kind, and it has the spots very different from those of any 

 other specimen in the collection ; but this is such a difference as one 

 may expect to find only a variation when one examines a large series 

 of specimens. 



My Leopardus gi'iseiis (Mag. N. H. x. 260, 1842) differs from 

 the other Ocelots in having a grey fur with whitish sides. There 

 are several specimens which agree in this peculiarity. The grey 

 specimens offer several variations in the spotting, like the fulvous 

 specimens. One specimen has a rather yellow tint in the middle of 

 the back ; otherwise the grey colour seems permanent. Mr. Blyth 

 has observed that the smaller and darker Spotted Cats become more 

 fulvous as they attain full age ; but that cannot explain the greyness 

 of these specimens, as there are adult as well as young specimens of 

 the grey colour. 



Felis melanura (Ball, P. Z. S. 1844, p. 128) is a most strongly 

 marked specimen, and in the whole series of specimens in the Mu- 

 seum stands alone for the intensity and clearness of the marking, 

 both black, white, and fulvous. It may be a variety in which the 

 colours, especially the black, are very much more developed than 

 usual, and therefore the spots have become confluent, until the whole 

 animal may be described as black with white and fulvous spots. It 

 is not the common melanism, where the whole fur has become more 

 or less black, the black spots being only a little more intense. We 

 have an Ocelot of this latter variety in the British Museum ; but it 

 bears no resemblance to the type specimen described by Mr. Ball, 

 which is also in the Museum collection. 



In the British Museum there is a very small Spotted Ocelot, 

 which may be recorded as a species or variety under the name of 

 F. pardoides. The fur is grey, with a very large number of nearly 

 equal-sized round or oblong dark spots ; the spots on the loins and 

 rump are larger, with a pale centre ; the cheeks and nape with black 

 streaks ; belly white, with large black spots ; tail ringed. Length 

 of body and head 26, tail 13 inches. Hub. Tropical America. 



The species or varieties are to a certain extent permanent ; the 

 young, in some instances at least, are like their parents ; and the 

 markings do not change with age (that is to say, they are the same 

 on the kitten as on the adult) ; and there are adult specimens that 

 are grey as well as fulvous, or fulvous and white ; so that the grey 

 colour does not depend on the youth of the specimen, as has been 

 suggested. 



Three species of small Spotted Cats have been described as inha- 

 biting South and Tropical America. All these three species may be 

 distinguished from the Ocelots {Felis pardina) by the smaller size 

 of the head, and the spots not being united together in chains ; but 

 the latter character is not to be observed in all Ocelots. As these 

 Cats, like the other Spotted Cats, vary greatly in the form, size, and 

 disposition of the spots, the determination of the species has been 

 attended with considerable difficulty, and it has been suggested that 

 perhaps there are more than one species of the long-tailed American 



