KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIKNS HANDLINGAK. BAND 58. N:0 2. 



53 



A further comparison between these measurements and those recorded by Pooock' 

 for the skulls from Sette Kama, Gaboon, proves that there are several important differ- 

 ences. In the present skull from Kabare the breadth of the bulla is equal to the distance 

 between both bullae (the same is practically the case with the other Congo-skulls as well), but 

 in the Gaboon Leopards the former measurement is greater and always more than 25 mm. 

 PococK appears also to lay much stress on the shape and breadth of the mesopterygoid 

 fossa. He calls that of the Gaboon Leopards narrow with almost parallel sides.*^The_^by 

 him published figure and the recorded measurements prove this. 



The breadth of the mesopterygoid 

 fossa in the skulls from Gaboon varies be^ 

 tween 14 and 18,7 mm. This narrowness is 

 decidedly in contrast with the broadness 

 of the same dimension in the Kabare skull. 

 The skull presented by Lieutenant Eriks- 

 son, and which is from the interior of the 

 Congo forest, is also much broader in this 

 respect than the specimens from Sette Ka- 

 ma. PococK has also at the same time 

 pointed out that »the anterior border of 

 the fossa is at all events as a rule produced 

 backwards into a sharply pointed angle in 

 Asiatic Leopards, whereas in African Leo- 

 pards it is generally at least markedly 

 straighter, sometimes indeed slightly notch- 

 ed ». To this I must say that unf ortuntely 

 the shape of the posterior border of 

 the palate, or as Pooock prefers to name 

 it, the anterior border of fossa mesoptery- 

 goidea, is not constant neither in Asiatic, 

 nor in African Leopards. To prove this I 

 may mention that among three male Leopard 

 skulls (all adult), which Count Nils Gyl- 

 DENSTOLPE has brought home from Siam, 

 one has this border forming a backwards 

 projecting angle, in the second it is straight, 



and in the third^ it is decidedly concave. Further among Leopard skulls from Eritrea 

 collected at Gheleb by the Swedish Missionary, Pastor K. Roden one has a prominent 

 m^esial point on this border, but in another it is notched and so on. This variability 

 reduces also the importance of the difference with regard to the posterior palatal bor- 

 der which exists in the Kabare skull and the one presented by Lieutenant Eriksson. 

 In the latter this border is almost straight, although somewhat irregular, in the former 

 it has a comparatively broad mesial process which is notched at the end (fig. 5). 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1909, p. 204—209. 



2 From the Nan province. 



Fig. 5. Palatal view of skull of Felis pardus centralis 

 11. subsp. 



