APPENDIX B 



On a new Form of Puma from Patagonia. 



By Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S. 



The National Collection owes to the generosity of Mr. C. Arthur 

 Pearson the skin of a fine puma, obtained by Mr. Hesketh Prichard during 

 the rectnt Daily Express expedition to Patagonia. The skin is remarkably 

 unlike any known form of puma, and appears certainly to represent a new 

 sub-species. 



Dr. Matschie has already shown * that the red puma of the tropics 

 to which he restricts the name Felis concolor, is replaced south of 25° S. 

 lat. by the silver-grey form for which Molina's name, E. puma, is used. 



Now, again, south of about 44° S. lat., there proves to be another 

 form, represented in the British Museum not only by Mr. Prichard's skin 

 from Santa Cruz, but by a second much younger specimen from the Rio 

 Senguer. Both show the same characteristics, and are equally different 

 from the Argentine silver-grey form. 



In commemoration of Mr. Pearson's scientific spirit in sending out the 

 expedition, and in presenting the specimen to the National Museum, I 

 would propose to call it 



Eelis concolor Pearsoni, sub-sp. n. 



General build thick and sturdy, with comparatively short limbs and 

 tail. Fur thick and woolly, the specimens evidently in winter pelage. 

 General colour nearest to Ridgway's "clay-colour," therefore exceedingly 

 different from the nearly "drab-grey" of i^ c. puma. This colour is 

 most vivid along the back, paler laterally on the sides, but there is nothing 

 that can be called a distinct dorsal dark line. Undersurface whitish-fawn, 

 the hairs sandy at their bases, whiter terminally. Face very much like 

 back, darker markings practically obsolete ; the usual lighter markings 



* SB. Ges. nat. Fr. Berlin, 1892, p. 220 ; 1894, p. 58. 



