90 
CARNIVORA. 
with brownish spots, and undulating blackish rays. 
The ears are without pencils. It appears to be the 
lynx of Bartram. 
The golden lynx is the wild cat of Leray, which 
has the fur of a brilliant and clear yellow colour, 
sprinkled with black and white spots ; the belly is 
pale yellow, without spots. The ears are not pen- 
cilled, and the tail is very short. 
Before the feline family is dismissed from further 
notice, we must advert to two or three species, which, 
although they are properly associated with the cats, 
because the generic characters predominant in them 
are such as are proper to these animals ; yet do they, 
in some other particulars, approach the characteristics 
of another genus, and occupy a sort of intermediate 
station. 
It has been already noticed, that any artificial 
arrangement of the animal kingdom, however useful 
to the student in nature, will ever be subject to 
numerous exceptions. Indeed, anomalies will occur 
in any systematic arrangement of all the departments 
of natural history; and, however perplexing such 
exceptions to general rules may be to methodical 
disposition, they have, in some cases, elicited curious 
facts; and, in others, have induced ingenious and 
interesting hypotheses. 
Thus, in zoology, certain determinate peculiarities 
belong to one set or family of animals to the exclu- 
sion of all others, and obviously separate such family 
into a distinct genus ; but there will generally be 
