170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.48. 



size and characteristics, including the presence of the wide sulcus 

 between the mastoid process and the audital bulla. The single ex- 

 ception, an adult male skull collected by Captain Page at Lake 

 Ubiraba, between Bolivia and Matto Grosso, Brazil, August, 1859, 

 resembles the skulls from the Amazon region in every particular, 

 except that it is much higher crowned (center of crown to maxillary 

 tuberosity, 114.5) and has considerably greater postorbital and inter- 

 orbital breadth. It shows no approach in characters toward the 

 Paraguay skulls. 



Fitzinger * based a name, alba, principally on references to accounts 

 of jaguars from Paraguay, but the name is preoccupied by Felis alba 

 Fischer 2 for a tiger. The Felis nigra of Erxleben is a synonym of 

 Felis onca. 



FELIS NOTIALIS, new species. 



Type. — United States National Museum No. 4361, skull of [male] 

 adult (basal suture obliterated); collected at San Jose, Entre Kios, 

 Argentina, August, 1860, by Capt. T. J. Page, United States Navy. 



Characters. — Skull small, very much smaller than in the neighbor- 

 ing form, Felis paraguensis, and slightly less in size than in true onca, 

 much lower crowned and less arched; inter orbital constriction less; 

 nasals longer; antorbital foramina more rounded, less oval; squamosal 

 arm of zygoma weaker; anterior opening of nares smaller, more 

 rounded; audital bullae very low and little inflated, with wide space 

 between them and rims of mastoid and par occipital processes. 

 Premolars very large, larger than in the much greater Paraguay form, 

 but canines relatively smaller. 



Measurements. — Type skull: Greatest length, 264 mm.; zygomatic 

 breadth, 176; median length nasals, 65.3; center of crown to tip of 

 premaxillary bones, 141 ; center of crown to maxillary tuberosity, 102. 

 Teeth: Length pm s -pm 4 , 49.9 [in male onca, 43.8-47.5]; upper 

 carnassial, 30.7 by 15.5 [in onca 26.6-28.2 by 14.6-15.3]. 

 Remarks. — This form is based on a single specimen. Compared with 

 six skulls of true onca, this specimen is at once distinguishable by its 

 much larger carnassials and the peculiarly low audital bullae. The 

 form represented is even more widely different from its nearest 

 neighbor, the giant Paraguay species with the swollen bullae, than 

 from the Brazilian Felis onca. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 5. 



Audital bullae of jaguars (natural size). 



Fig. 1. Felis onca, Cat. No. 49393, U.S.N.M., Amazon River near Santarem, Brazil. 

 Collected by Clarence B. Riker. 

 2. Felis paraguensis, Cat. No. 4128, U.S.N.M., Paraguay. Collected by Capt. 

 T. J. Page. Type-specimen. 



» Sitz.-ber. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. 59, 1 Abtb.., pp. 218-220, 1869. 

 2 Syn. Mamm. , p. 566, 1829. 



