TWO NEW SOUTH AMERICAN JAGUARS. 



By N. Hollister, 

 Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals, United States National Museum. 



The series of jaguars in the collection of the United States National 

 Museum now includes, besides numerous zoological park specimens, 

 the skulls of 36 wild-killed animals. A study of this material gives 

 a very good idea of the individual variation in the skull, and of some of 

 the local forms of this great cat. In addition to the three forms rec- 

 ognized by Dr. E. A. Mearns from north of Panama, three well- 

 marked South American species are represented in the collection, two 

 of which appear to be without names. The most important charac- 

 ters distinguishing these forms were pointed out by Doctor Mearns 

 in his paper. 1 



FELIS PARAGUENSIS, new species. 



Type. — United States National Museum No. 4128, skull of male 

 adult (basal suture closed) ; collected in Paraguay by Capt. T. J. Page, 

 United States Navy. Catalogued June, 1860. 



Characters. — Skull largest of the jaguars, much larger than skull 

 of Felis onca from Brazil (and exceeding in measurements the largest 

 Corean tigress skull examined), elongated and comparatively low 

 crowned, with very high and strongly developed sagittal crest;, audital 

 bullae large and greatly inflated, angular and flattened on surfaces, 

 completely filling space to the mastoid and paroccipital processes, 

 almost twice the bulk of the bullae in any Brazilian specimen. Teeth 

 actually slightly larger, but relatively of about same size as in onca. 



Measurements. — Type skull compared with a slightly older male 

 from Santarom, Brazil, the latter in parentheses: Greatest length, 

 303 (269) mm.; condylobasal length, 265 (234); zygomatic breadth, 

 196 (183); median line nasals, 61.7 (56.6); center of crown to tip of 

 premaxillary bones, 146 (137); center of crown to maxillary tuberos- 

 ity, 117 (108); audital bulla, 40.5 by 37 (30.2 by 29.8). Teeth: 

 Length pm 3 -£>m 4 , 48.3 (45.2); upper carnassial, 28.8 by 15.2 (26.6 by 

 15.2). Skull of adult female from Paraguay: Greatest length, 248 

 mm.; condylobasal length, 220; zygomatic breadth, 179; length 

 pm 3 -pm i , 42.5. 



Remarks. — This form is based on two skulls from Paraguay. Those 

 have been compared with six skulls of true onca from Brazil and 

 Venezuela, all of which, with one exception, are very uniform in 



1 The American Jaguars, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 14, pp. 137-143, Aug. 9, 1901. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 48— No. 2069. 



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