11/8 Report of Curator, Zoological Department . [Nov. 



Fells uncia, Lin. A flat skin, perfect, with the unfortunate exception of 

 the four paws, of which it is mutilated. Another and finer Ounce skin was 

 some time ago sent us by Mr. Lushington, similarly imperfect. 



F. isabellina, nobis, n. s. The Lynx of Tibet. An imperfect skin, which 

 I exhibit together with three other specimens of Lynxes from Tibet, and 

 with three from Norway, — the latter being of the species referred to F. lynx, 

 L., by M. Temminck, and which is termed F. virgata by M. Nilsson. The 

 difference of colour of the Tibetan from the ordinary European Lynx is 

 much the same as with the Wolves of the two regions : the Tibetan animal 

 exhibiting a deficiency of colour; and the markings also are much less 

 brought out, in the summer pelage, than I have seen in specimens of the 

 ordinary European Lynx. A distinction, however, which I cannot help 

 regarding as specifical exists in the very much larger naked pads of the feet 

 and toes, at all seasons, in the Tibetan as compared with the European Lynx ; 

 in the latter those of the toes are even discovered with difficulty, amid the 

 very long fur that completely conceals them ; whereas in the Tibetan species 

 these pads are large and prominent, and the fur between them is short and 

 close, and does not conceal them at all. In other respects, the two animals 

 bear much resemblance, except that (so far as can be judged from skins only) 

 the Tibetan would seem to be a taller and more slender species. The ears 

 and tail are shaped and coloured as in the other ; but the ear-tufts of the 

 Tibetan Lynx would seem to be always more developed, measuring 2 inches 

 and upwards in length. The fur varies much, according to season. In one 

 specimen before me, in full summer dress, the pelage is short, and of an 

 uniform dull sandy-brown colour, deeper and more rufous along the back, 

 where grizzled with whitish-tipped and also some black-tipped hairs, which 

 on the sides are diffused more scantily : the lower-parts are white, with (as 

 usual) some scattered dusky spots ; and there are some not very conspicuous 

 markings of a deeper hue outside of the limbs : face and mouchetures as in the 

 European Lynx. Another and mounted specimen is much paler, a light 

 isabelline hue predominating ; and at a proper distance and angle of vision, 

 the Ocelot-like markings of the European Lynx in summer may just be 

 made out upon the sides of the croup, and the spots on the limbs and sides 

 of the body are comparatively distinct ; the blackish bars on the inside of 

 the fore-limbs being well developed. The winter dress is of a nearly uniform 

 fine rufous cream-colour, or isabelline, below the surface, but showing more 

 or less ; the hairs whitish-tipped with black at the extreme tips, producing a 

 somewhat grizzled appearance ; the isabelline hue underneath being much 

 less deej) than in the European Lynx, in which the colour is rather a full 

 rich orange-brown : sides paler and longer-haired, as usual, and the colour 

 purer, passing to white underneath, intermixed with black hairs that grow 



