10. vkms. 21 



of these specimens, as there are adult as weU as young specimens of 

 the grey colour. 



Felts melanura (Ball, P. Z. S. 1844, p. 128) is a most strongly 

 marked specimen, and ia the whole series of specimens in the Mu- 

 seum stands alone for the intensity and clearness of the markings, 

 hoth black, white, and fulvous. It may be a variety in which the 

 colours, especially the black, are very much more developed than 

 usual, and therefore the spots have become confluent, until the whole 

 animal may be described as black with white and fulvous spots. It 

 is not the common melanism, where the whole fur has become more 

 or less black, the black spots being only a little more intense. We 

 have an Ocelot of this latter variety in the British Museum ; but it 

 bears no resemblance to the type specimen described by Mr. Ball, 

 which is also in the Museum collection. 



In the British Museum there is a very small Spotted Ocelot, 

 which is here recorded as a species or variety under the name of 

 F. pardoides. 



The species or varieties are to a certain extent permanent ; the 

 young, in some instances at least, are like their parents ; and the 

 markings do not change with age (that is to say, they are the same 

 on the kitten as on the adult) ; and there are adult specimens that 

 are grey as well as fulvous, or fulvous and white ; so that the grey 

 colour does not depend on the youth of the specimen, as has been 

 suggested. 



tt Smaller, small-headed^ spotted American Cats. Margay. 



Three species of small Spotted Cats have been described as inha- 

 biting South and Tropical America. All these three species may be 

 distinguished from the Ocelots (Felis pardina) by the smaller size 

 of the head, and the spots not being united together in chains ; but 

 the latter character is not to be observed in aU Ocelots. As these 

 Cats, like the other Spotted Cats, vary greatly in the form, size, and 

 disposition of the spots, the determination of the species has been 

 attended with considerable difB.culty, and it has been suggested that 

 perhaps there are more than one species of the long-tailed Ame- 

 rican Tiger Cat caUed F. macroura. There is a very large series of 

 specimens of the long-tailed species in the British Museum (two 

 Chatis and several Margays) from different localities. And if there 

 were not so many offering such different variations of the first 

 species in the collection (I had only a few selected specimens to 

 describe from), I should have been inclined to separate them into 

 more than one species ; indeed, in 1842, when we had only four or 

 five specimens, I did name one in the ' List of Mammalia ' as a dis- 

 tinct species under the name of Leopardus tigrinoides. 



These three species may be easUy distinguished from each other 

 by the kind and colour of the fur, and the colour and length of the 

 tail. Thus F. macroura and F. mitts have soft bright fulvous fur, 



