470 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



The existing catalogue of species, even as we have stated 

 in our Table appended, in which several that have been 

 treated as distinct are omitted, is still, it is to be suspected, 

 capable of many subtractions ; and many of them, when 

 submitted to the observation of judicious, operative natu- 

 ralists, and tried by the test of anatomical character, will 

 be found to be mere varieties of others. 



Figures, however, if at all accurate, claim a more de- 

 cided consideration than imperfect verbal descriptions ; and 

 it must not be forgotten that Zoology has been neglected to 

 an extraordinary degree in this country, notwithstanding 

 the opportunities possessed here, above all others, of prose- 

 cuting the science. The drawings in our possession have 

 occupied many years in collecting, during which time a 

 number of new species have occurred in our different exhibi- 

 tions, each of which would have been the subject of obser- 

 vation and comment, in the different learned societies of the 

 continent, though they have been treated here purely as 

 matters of pecuniary speculation of the exhibitors, and al- 

 most altogether neglected by men of science. 



Under these circumstances, therefore, we earnestly de- 

 precate the imputation of that foolish vanity which has in- 

 duced many men to incumber Zoology by editing, as no- 

 velties, species, or even genera, upon the authority of a 

 single type, which, eventually, turn out scarcely to deserve 

 the name of varieties. Such figures as we possess, which 

 seem to claim attention from their novelty, we shall present, 

 as we find them, Valeant quantum valere possint. 



At the end of the Large Spotted Cats, the Baron places 

 the Hunting Leopard, Felis Jubata, the Chetah of India, and 

 the Guepard of Buffon. The peculiarities of this species 

 might suffice to qualify it for a separate station, at the end 

 of the genus approaching the Dogs, so far as to be called, 

 without impropriety, the Canine Cat. 



The Feline family is, in general, very strongly marked, 



