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Show 1867.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE FELIDAE. 397 perhaps the errors of the artist. Indeed it is doubtful if the figure is not a copy of an Indian drawing, like several of the animals figured in that work, said to have been received from M. Duvaucel. I cannot agree with Mr. Blyth in thinking that F. torquata is the same as F. ornata. Mr. Hodgson sent from Nepaul a very large specimen, which agrees with the typical specimen of F. inconspicuua in its most essential characters, but is much larger, and the waved bands are more broken into spots ; these spots are all nearly of the same form. The head and body of the stuffed specimen is 25 inches, and the tail 11 inches long. In the list of Mr. Hodgson's specimens he asks " is it a Tame Cat ?" p. 6. Mr. Hodgson, in his M S . list, called it Felis viverriceps. There is a third, smaller specimen in the British Museum, received through Capt. Boys from India. The second, which varies from pale fulvous to grey, is the Felis maniculata of Riippell (Zool. iVtlas, t. 1), from various parts of Africa. There are several specimens of this species in the British Museum. The largest and darkest, being grey with darker bands, is a specimen from Tangiers, received from M. Verreaux, the body and head 24, and the tail 14 inches long ; the darker bands are very indistinct. There is a second example, not quite so large, with bands darker, that lived several years in the Zoological Gardens, and was sent from Tunis by Sir Thomas Reade-and a smaller one, similar in colour, also from the Zoological Gardens, but without any special habitat attached, and a dark grey kitten from Kordofan. Two other specimens are pale yellowish, slightly grizzled, with the streak and spot of the body rather darker yellow, and the rings on the end of the tail are black. One of these, brought from Macassar by Mr. Wallace, is rather darker than the other, and has the bands on the legs nearly black, like the Tunisian specimen. The other, from Kordofan, is rather paler, and the bands on the legs, like those on the body, are yellow. Very nearly allied to these, and probably only a variety, is a small nearly white Cat, marked with pale yellow stripes, sent from Egypt by Mr. Christie, which I described in the ' Magazine of Natural History' for 1837 under the name of Felis pulchella. It differs greatly from all the other specimens of F. maniculata in the very large size of the ears; but it resembles them so closely that I am almost inclined to believe that it may be only a very pale variety of that species. The size of the ears may have been produced by the negligence of the stuffer ; but that can only be decided by the examination of fresh specimens. Mr. Blyth thinks that this specimen is only "an Egyptian variety of the Common Cat" (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 184, note); but I cannot agree with that theory. The three large specimens in the British Museum of these Cats come from South Africa. The largest was received from M . Verreaux, the next largest from the Zoological Society's Museum under the name of Felis caffra (Felis nigripes of Burchell), the other from Dr. Andrew Smith as Felis caffra. The first two of these are dark grey, with distinct dark, blackish |
