1907. 1 RECENTLY IN THE SOCIETY'S GABDENS. 675 



On Felis caracal Guld. 



At the present time there are four Caracals living in the 

 Gardens, an adult pair from South Africa presented by Col. Slog- 

 gett, D.S.O., R.A.M.C, a young female from Jebba in Nigeria 

 presented by Mr. E. Lort Phillijas, and a young male presented 

 by Sir George Denton from Senegal. The South African animals 

 have shortei- tails and are rather darker and greyer in tint than 

 those from North-western Africa ; but the lattei' diflerence may 

 be merely a question of age. A young specimen brought by 

 Capt. Rice from Lake Chad was also more richly tinted than those 

 presented by Col. Sloggett. But the Society's material does not 

 justify the classification of African examples of this species 

 into more than one subspecies. 



The example bi-ought by Capt. Rice was extraordinarily tame, 

 although about half -grown, and played about the office with a piece- 

 of string exactly like a kitten and allowed itself to be handled 

 without attempting to scratch or bite. The specimen sent by Sir 

 George Denton, on the contrary, was. Dr. Hopkinson, D.S 0., 

 tells me, absolutely savage from its earliest days, although it was 

 taken when about a month old and always kept on a chain. The 

 interest of these facts lies in the conclusion they enforce that 

 fierceness in animals of this kind is a matter of individual 

 temperament, and not a specific characteristic. 



Di'. Hopkinson also tells me that Caracals appear not to be 

 known actually in the Gambia. The species is at least unknown 

 to the natives, and there is no name foi- it in any of the 

 native languages. 



On Felis parous Linn. 



Subsp. LEOPARDUS Schreb. 



Felis leopcmxlus Schreber, Saug. iii. p. 387, pi. ci. (named on 

 plate), 1777 ; Erxleben, Syst. Regni Anim. p. 509, 1777. 



Both by Schreber and Erxleben the name leopardus was applied 

 to West- African Leopards. Schreber gave the distribution as 

 fx'om Gambia to the Cape; but Erxleben restricted the locality to 

 Guinea and the adjoining countries of Africa. Moi-eoA^er his words 

 " corjiore fnsco maculis suhcoachmatis nigris" and " maculis tnaxiifne 

 approximatis " forcibly suggest that he was acquainted with skins 

 or living examples of the form he was describing. The so-called 

 East- African Leopard cannot therefore be regarded as typical of 

 '•'■ leopardtis'^ as Mr. Lydekker maintained*. 



* ' Great and Small Game of India,' p. 297, 1900. The sjnoiij'my of some of the 

 larger species of Felidic is still somewhat confused. For instance, Dr. Neumann 

 speaks of the Leopard of the Atlas as ^ pantliera ' (Zool. Jahrb., Syst. xiii. p. 552, 1900) . 

 Dr. Trouessart, on the contrary, applies the name '' jMnthera ' Erxl. to a Leopard 

 inhabiting- Persia, hidia and Ceylon (Cat. Mamrn. Suppl. p. 268, 1904) ; and 

 Mr. Lydekker used it for the Persian race which was subsequently named tulliana. 

 It appears to me, on the contrary, to be evident that Erxleben gave the nmae ■p'^nthera 

 to the species that Schreber described as uncia (see Fischer, Syn. Mamm., Add. etc. 

 p. 567= (367) 1830). At all events there are just as good, or as bad, reasons for holding 

 that panthera was applied to the species we call the Snow Leopard or Ounce, and 

 which Ehrenberg not unjustifiably named JF. irbis, as for holding that uncia was 

 applied to that species. The name pantJiera of Schreber must on Schreber's own 

 citation be regarded as a synonym of pardus Linn. 



