260 
OCELOT. 
cats, that have been confounded with it. Of these, the most similar in ap- 
pearance is perhaps the Felis mitis, which is found in the tropical portions 
of North America, and in the warmer parts of South America. 
The Felis mitis has in fact been figured, and described by Shaw, Vol. 2, 
p. 356, (unless we deceive ourselves), as the Ocelot, (our present species) 
while his figure of the Jaguar, (opposite p. 354), is probably drawn from 
the Ocelot, although, so poor a figure as to be hardly recognisable. 
The descriptions and figures of the Ocelot, that we find in old works on 
natural history, are so confusing, and unsatisfactory, that we are obliged 
to throw aside all reference to them in establishing any one of the feline 
tribe as our animal, and leave the reader to decide whether Boffon, speak- 
ing of the Ocelot, as two feet and a-half high and about four feet in length, 
meant the subject of our article, which is only two feet-six inches long 
from nose to root of tail, the Felis mitis, or the Jaguar ; and whether Pen- 
nant referred to the same animal, which he describes, when speaking of the 
Ocelot, “ as about four times the size of a large cat,” (about the size of our 
specimen of the Ocelot). 
The description of this species in LiNN.a;us is so short, that it is almost 
equally applicable to either the Jaguar, the Ocelot, or Felis mitis : “Felis 
cauda elongata, corpore maculis superioribus virgatis, inferioribus orbicula- 
tis:' Sys. Nat. Gmel. p. 78. Brisson is also very concise in giving the 
character of the Ocelot ; F. rufa, in ventre exalbo Jlavicans, maculis nigris 
in dorso longis, in ventre orbiculatis variegata. Q,uadr. 169. We are on 
the whole inclined to consider the species described by Pennant as the 
Mexican Cat, the Ocelot or Leopard-Cat of the present article, and the lar- 
ger animal described by other authors, as the Felis mitis, as young of the 
Jaguar, or perhaps females of this last named species, and we have not yet 
met with the Felis mitis within our range, although we have seen such an 
animal alive in New-York, one having been brought by sea from Yucatan. 
Our animal is quite well known in Texas as the Leopard-Cat, and in 
Mexico is called the Tiger-Cat, it is in the habit of concealing itself in hol- 
lows in trees, and also by squatting upon the larger branches. It is rather 
nocturnal, and preys upon the smaller quadrupeds, and on birds, eggs, (fee., 
when they can be seized on the ground. 
The activity and grace of the Leopard-Cat, are equal to the beauty of its 
fur, and it leaps with case amid the branches of trees, or runs with swift- 
ness on the ground. These Cats seldom stray far from woods, or thickets 
bordering on rivers, streams, or ponds, very rarely lying on the hill-sides, or 
out on the plains. 
They run like foxes, or wild-cats, when chased by the hunters with 
hounds or other dogs, doubling frequently, and using all the stratagems of 
