SPOTTED AND STRIPED MAMMALS 23 



as shown in Fig. 12, there is a similar disposition of large round 



spots and minute specks. From this one might perhaps surmise 



that the circular spots in the Cheetah 



represent the modi^ed enclosed space of the '" - • ^ '■ ■ 



Jaguar rosettes, while the specks represent ® . 



the dissociated rz'ng^ of spotlets. The ^ ' m 



change of colour of the enclosed space from " . • 



brown to black is not wholly imaginary, fig. 12.— Group of Spots 



for in horses we find that the white spots f™m 'he haunch of a cheetah 



^ (Nat. Hist. Mus.). 



of dappled animals are changed to black 



spots in the roan and to brown spots in the strawberry roan.^ 

 I confess, however, that the Cheetah spotting is rather puzzling, 

 for the individual spots are as round as a shilling, with a general 

 equality of size, and they do not give any indication of a coalescence 

 of minor spots like those on the abdomen of the Jaguar. Yet the 

 consolidated rosettes on the paws of the latter animal are not 

 unlike those of the Cheetah. They have, moreover, minute specks 

 among them. As spots can be wholly obliterated, so, I suppose, 

 they can diminish in size. 



In a Leopard skin there were here and there minute specks, like 

 those of the Cheetah, interspersed among the usual rosettes. This 

 is uncommon in Leopard skins ; but in the Natural History Museum 

 (case 1 2) a Leopard among the consolidated rosettes of its fore-legs 

 has a number of minute specks like those of the Cheetah ; and in 

 the window of the International Fur Stores I saw a Leopard skin 

 which had small and roundish spots on the back (shoulder region) 

 which were not unlike the larger spots of the Cheetah. So that it 

 is not improbable that the larger circular spots of the Cheetah may 



^ We may have melanism or albinism or shades thereof on the entire surface, or 

 changes of colour in certain parts only, as I shall endeavour to show in another place. 

 In another place I have also indicated that black, tan, and white are interchangeable 

 colours. 



