STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



Fig. lO shows the picture of a Hving Cheetah, and Fig. 1 1 the 

 skin of a similar animal (perhaps an older one) spread out to see 

 both sides at once. In the Cheetah we find numerous solid circular 

 .spots, with minute specks interspersed among them. The large 

 spots are disposed in transverse rows on the flanks (Fig. lo).^ 

 The minute specks, however, in the figure of the skin are inter- 

 spersed among the larger spots, apparently without any order ; 



Fig. lo. — Picture of a living Cheetah, from a photograph by Ottomar Anechiitz, 

 Lissa(Posen). 



while in the figure of the living animal the minuter specks appear 

 to be disposed in many places in rows also, alternating with the 

 rows of the bigger spots. 



In the Cheetah it is not easy to make out whether the larger 

 spots are consolidations of the entire Leopard rosettes, or dissocia- 

 tions of the spots forming the rosette rings of the Jaguar. The 



^ At the International Fur Stores, Regent Street, I was shown a Clieetah skin with 

 some of the rows on the flank undergoing fusion, and forming beaded strings ; and 

 several couples of spots were actually fused into one blotch. 



