ISfi/.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE FELID^. 8/5 



These authors must have examined their specimens very cursorily, 

 and cannot have paid any attention to the length of the tail and the 

 distribution of the bands when present. It will be seen by my pre- 

 ceding observations, founded on the examination of the specimens 

 in the British JNIuseum received from all parts of Africa — from Tunis 

 and Egypt in the north, Abyssinia in the east, and the Cape of 

 Good Hope in the south, that these Cats are all of one species, and of 

 a species easily distinguished from the Chaus of Asia by the greater 

 length and development of the tail. 



Of the genus Chans (as defined by the shortness of the tail), 

 which appears to be confined to Asia, there are what I am inclined 

 to regard as three distinct species in the Museum Collection. 



The largest species is the animal that I figured in the ' Illustra- 

 tions of Indian Zoology ' under the name of Felis affinis, having 

 convinced myself that it was a distinct species years ago, when I was 

 studying the animals of India from the Hardwicke Collection of 

 Drawings. I have little doubt that this is the Cat described and 

 figured by Pallas in the ' Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,' t. 2, under 

 the name of Felis catolynx. It is certainly the Lynciis erythrotis 

 of Hodgson, whose drawings for his ' Nepal Fauna' contain several 

 good figures of it. It may be the Felis kutas of Pearson. It inha- 

 bits, according to Mr. Hodgson, the central and lower regions of 

 Nepal. There is a well-stutfed adult specimen of this Cat in the 

 British Museum ; it is a magnificent animal. 



It is known by the bright yellow colour of the fur, without any, 

 or with only very indistinct, indications of darker streaks across the 

 body, which, when present, are only to be seen when the body is 

 looked at at certain angles. 



Giildensladt's (Nov. Comm. Acad. Petrop. xx. p. 483, t. 14) de- 

 scription and figure of the Felis chaus from the shores of the Caspian 

 agree with this animal in most particulars, and represent the short tail 

 of the genus Chaus, the tail being rather more than one-fourth of the 

 entire length of the body, or one-third of the length of the body and 

 head (30-1-11). The fur is described as "fusco-lutescens, guise et 

 regionis umbilicalis albidus ; pectoris et abdominis dilute rufescens." 

 In the figure the under part is represented as much paler than this 

 description justifies, or than may have been intended. Otherwise it 

 is a good representative of the Nepal animal. I have not seen any 

 specimen from the Caspian. The red ear is common to the Nepal 

 F. affinis and most specimens of F. caUgata from Africa. 



In the British Museum there are two small specimens of the genus 

 Chaus with short tails from India which have more distinct dark 

 bands across their body and legs, and which are without doubt the 

 Cats that MM. F. Cuvier and Blyth have confounded with the 

 longer-tailed Felis nianiculata of Africa. 



This Cat was figured, from a specimen then alive in Exeter Change, 

 under the name of the Bangalore Cat {F. chaus), in my ' Spicilegia 

 Zoologica,' t. 2. f. 1. It is probably the Felis jacqueinonti of M. 

 Isidore Geoffroy, in the ' Zoology to Jacquemont's Voyage,' the skull 

 of which is figured t. 3. f. 1. Unfortunately the specimens in the 



