La 
1909. | SKULLS OF LEOPARDS. 207 
of measurements shows (p. 208). This skull itself nearly reaches 
record dimensions since it exceeds in zygomatic width by half an 
inch the largest recorded by Rowland Ward (71 : 68) and falls only 
a quarter of an inch short of it in total length (10:103). It 
belonged to an exceptionally fine male from Mhow in the Central 
Provinces of India, presented to the Society by Mr. Pelham, This 
Leopard was of the typical race /’. pardus pardus. Not only is 
this skull from Mhow broader across the premaxille than the Cette 
Cama specimens, but it also differs from them in having much 
smaller auditory bulle, the width of these being less than the width 
of the basioccipital area between them, instead of being greater ; 
but most of all does it differ in the width and shape of the meso- 
pterygoid fossa, which is wider in front than behind and has a 
sinuous concavo-convex edge owing to the incurvature of the 
pterygoid bones; whereas this fossa in the Cette Cama skulls has 
almost parallel sides and is comparatively long and narrow though 
varying individually in these respects. It is also of interest to record 
that a Leopard’s skull of average dimensions belonging to a male, 
presented to the Society by Mr. F. H. Melland and captured on the 
Luangwe River in North-east Rhodesia, has the mesopterygoid 
fossa shaped more like that of the specimen from Mhow than like 
the fossa of those from Cette Cama; and that in the equality in 
width between the auditory bull and the intervening area of the 
basioccipital, it occupies an intermediate stage. As I have already 
stated *, this Luangwe Leopard also differs from the typical West 
African form in colour, its yellow hue recalling that of most 
Indian specimens, although the spots are much smaller. This fact 
and the differences in the skull above recorded indicate that it 
represents a distinct subspecies from /”. pardus leopardus ; but in 
the present very unsatisfactory state of our knowledge of East 
and South African Leopards, I do not feel justified in applying 
to 1t a name, either new or old. 
Mr. Gerrard also sent to me with the three above mentioned 
skulls from Cette Cama, doubtless belonging to male specimens, 
a single skull of what I take to be a female animal, which was 
shipped from the same port at the same time together with some 
spoils of Gorillas and Chimpanzees. The closure of the cranial 
sutures shows that the specimen was adult and yet it is re- 
markably small, being 3 inches shorter and more than 2 inches 
narrower than the smallest of the three large ones (cf. measure- 
ments). This skull lends support to the oft-repeated statements 
of sportsmen that two kinds of Leopards, larger ones called 
Panthers and smaller ones called Leopards, occur in the same 
localities. 
So far as size goes this small specimen approaches much nearer 
the typical skull of the dwarf Leopard of Somaliland described by 
Thomas as F, pardus nanopardus, a Leopard which, together with 
* P. Z. S. 1907, p. 676. 
