162 ON TflE WILD CAT OF TRANSCAUCASIA. [Juue 7, 



delivered. This unforeseen event will now give, much sooner 

 than I expected, an opportunity to fulfil my promise to undertake 

 a thorough stvidy of the anatomy of the soft paits, as well as of 

 the two fully-developed foetuses. 

 I'lth April, 1901. 



EXPLANATION OP PLATE X. 



Dlnomi/s hrnniclcii, from photograplis of two living examples (a mother and young) 

 (about jV nat. size), and tlie skiu of the former (about \ nat. size) in the Goeldi 

 Museum, Farii. 



8. The Black Wild Cat of Transeancasia. 

 13y 0. Satunin, of Tiflis, C.M.Z.S. 



[Received May 16, 1904.] 



Although the existence iir Ti'ansca-ucjisia of a Black Wild Cat 

 Avas known long ago, the animal has never been desciibed noi- 

 scientifically named. 



Hochenacker speaks of this cat, so far back as 1837*, as a 

 Fells caio affi,nis ; but as all his text is in Latin, this cannot be 

 regarded as a scientific name for the animal. I myself have men- 

 tioned this cat as Felis sp. in my paper on the Fauna of the 

 Caucasus t, as well as in the Catalogue of the Caucasian MuseiimJ ; 

 but I have not had the opportunity of giving a desciiption of it 

 until now. 



That it really is a Wild Black Cat I knew well, as all the spe- 

 cimens I have had the opportunity of examining were alike, and 

 as it is by no means rai'e in its native haunts. 



There remained one important point to decide about this 

 animal, namely, Was it not a melanic form of the conunon Wild 

 Cat, Felis catus L. ? 



Thanks to the mateiial in the Zoological Museum of the 

 St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, whei-e I have found two 

 mounted specimens, three skins, and three skulls of this cat, I am 

 now certain of its specific validity, and I name it Fells dcemon §, 

 of which the following is the desciiption : — 



Size of a big male domestic cat. Colour ranging from black 

 with a slight reddish tinge to reddish dark brown. This colouring- 

 is somewhat lighter on the under side of the body, on the inner 

 surface of the extremities, and on the distal under surface of tail. 

 Yery long white hairs ai'e scantily dispei'sed all ovei- the body. 



In a cei'tain light, dark-black transversal stripes are visible on 

 the sides of the fore pai't of the body, these stripes being moi-e 

 conspicuous on somewhat faded skins. 



The whiskers, as well as the eyebrow-bristles, are bi'own. 



The tail is considerably longer than in Felis catus. 



Claws white, transparent, and with a mother-of-peai-1 lustre. 



* Bull. See. Nat. Moscou, 1837, p. 136. 

 t Zool. Jahrb., Syst. ix. p. 289 (1897). 

 X 'Museum Caucasieum,' i. p. 21-( 1899). 



§ " Pa'mon " being the hero of everal Caucasian legends, and also of the poem by 

 Lenuoiitoff with the same title 



