SPOTTED AND STRIPED MAMMALS 



27 



young animal in the Natural History Museum (case 13), ticketed 

 as a young Jaguar, has no spots at all, but is of a uniform brown. 



The variations in the disposition of the rosettes of Leopards are 

 very considerable. In 



3 



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 @ 



6) 



o\ 



Q 

 ^ 



^ 





a 



some specimens they 

 are distributed irregu- 

 larly, in others they 

 occur in slanting rows, 

 as in Fig. 1 5 (a). Where 

 they are crowded, two 

 or more fuse into an 

 elongated ocellus, as 

 in (d). The Fig. 59 

 shows how numerous 

 are the variations in 

 individual rosettes. 



We should make a 

 distinction between the 

 general colour and the 

 spot or rosette colour ; 

 both, as I said, are 

 liable to vary znde- 

 pendently. The Cheetah 

 and the Dalmatian 

 Dog are black-spotted, 

 while the Deer is white- 

 spotted. The ordinary Leopard has a general tan colour, the 

 melanoid a general brown colour, and the Snow-leopard ^ a general 

 white colour, although the rosettes remain black in all cases. 



^ Of two Snow-leopards in the Tring Museum, one has ocellated rosettes, and the 

 other has a large number of the rosettes solid, especially on the shoulders, haunches, 

 and lower part of flanks. 



Fig. 15 — (Diagrammatic disposition of leopard mark- 

 ings, both taken roughly from skins in furriers' windows. 

 («) Rows of rosettes, which might fuse into stripes. 

 \b) Fusion of two or more rosettes. 



