1907.] RECENTLY IX THE society's GARDENS. 669 



ohscura Desm., admitted by Dr. Elliot to be the earliest name for this 

 Cat and adopted for it by Mr. de Winton (Anderson's ' Mammals of 

 Egypt,' p. 1 75), should not supersede cafra. It was probably based 

 upon a melanistic specimen of the domestic cat described as 

 F. torquata, or upon a mongrel between that breed and F. ocreata 

 cafra. Mr. Schwann's reasons for rejecting Mr. de Winton's view 

 are not, however, in my opinion convincing. He lays stress upon 

 the fact that the cat was compared to a domestic cat in size and 

 was too numerously and conspicuously striped for F. o. cafra. The 

 first reason may be met by saying that the animal was young ; and 

 the second by the statement that Cuvier's figure of the type does 

 not bear out the belief in the numerical excess of the stripes over 

 those of F. 0. cafra*. 



It seems to me that the type of F. ohscura might have been a, 

 young, somewhat unusually well-striped melanistic specimen of 

 F. cafra, in which the stripes would naturally shoAv up as black 

 bar's, were it not that Cuvier's figure proves that the tail was 

 strongly banded to the base. This is a character in which 

 domestic cats of the torquata- and caifits-breeds often, though not 

 invariably, differ markedly from examj^les of F. ocreata and 

 F. sylvestris, in which the caudal stripes are usually only well deve- 

 loped at the distal end of the tail. Another feature oi F. ohscura 

 upon which Cuvier laid stress, remai-king that he had never seen 

 it in the Red-eared African Cats {F. ocreata), is the presence of 

 two distinct stripes on the cheek. When the stripes are retained 

 in domestic cats, these cheek-stripes are always visible. But 

 since they are also present in examples of F. o. cafra, no great 

 importance can be attached to them in this connection. 



The colour of the coat, the banding of the tail, and Cuviei-'s 

 remarks about the tameness of the Cat when at liberty, are the 

 principal reasons which make the substitution of ohscura for cafra 

 hardly defensible. 



On Felis nigripes Burchell. 



Felis 7iigripes Burchell, Travels, etc. ii. p. 592 (1824) ; Matschie, 

 SB. Nat. Fr. BerKn, 1894, p. 258; W. L. Sclater, Fauna of 

 S. Africa: Mammalia, p. 40, fig. 11 (1900). 



Two examples of this interesting little Cat, the smallest of all 

 the species of Felis, were presented to the Society in May 1906 by 

 Mr. A. W. Guthrie, C.M.Z.S.,of Port Elizabeth. They were pro- 

 cured from a dealer who declared they came from the Zambesi. It 

 would be unsafe to place any great reliance upon this statement. 



Apart from colour and pattern (text-figs. 177 & 178, pp. 672 

 & 673) the living animal is remarkably like a diminutive 

 domestic cat, especially about the head and face. The legs, 

 however, are relatively shorter, and the paws exceptionally 

 small and dainty. The iris of the eyes is yellowish green 



* The early literature of F. ohscura is as follows : — " Le chat noir du Cap," 

 F. Cuvier, Diet, des Sci. Nat. viii. p. 222 (1817) ; F. ohscura Desmarest. Encvclop. 

 Method., Mamm. p. 230 (1820); F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mamm. ii. pi. 128 (1826). 



