SPOTTED AND STRIPED MAMMALS 43 



Then in Fig. 27 we have a striking series of transitions in the 

 smaller Cats from spots to stripes. Some specimens show only 

 spots on the flanks ; others, spots coalesced irito wavy or beidy 

 stripes ; and others show more finished stripes, like those of Fig. 

 28. In the British Museum enclosure there is a Domestic Cat 

 which I often stop to look . 



at. The posterior half of its 

 body is spotted ; the anterior 

 half is striped transversely ; 

 the neck and head are striped 

 longitudinally ; the legs are 

 striped transversely, and 

 also spotted. Then along 

 its spine it has a broad black 

 band, and its tail i^ringed 

 in its terminal haT^ Here 

 we have a sort of general- 

 ised marking, combining a 

 little of each of the special 



features of distinct races of animals, the black band along the 

 spine in some animals being possibly the only vestige of ancestral 

 spotting ; while the ringed tail in the Racoon is the only vestige 

 left to tell the tale of its ancestral markings. 



In the International Fur Stores I saw the skin of a Tiger which 

 had a large ocellus towards the ventral region. This same skin 

 had a modification of stripes on the lumbar region, as if the 

 pigment were undecided whether it would run into separate stripes 

 or form an ocellus. Then in another Tiger skin I saw on one side 

 a curious rosette, and on the other a pair of parallel stripes. Both 

 these abnormalities in the Tiger markings are given in Fig. 29- 

 (No. i). They are not only curious, but very suggestive. ■ 



Fig. 28. — Striped Cat, from a photograph by 

 Messrs. Dixon and Son. Near the root of the tail 

 it has 'a few rosettes. 



