OCR Text |
Show 1867.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE FELID/E. 403 My Leopardus pictus (Mag. N. H. x. 260, 1842) is one of the larger kind, and it has the spots very different from those of any other specimen in the collection; but this is such a difference as one may expect to find only a variation when one examines a large series of specimens. M y Leopardus griseus (Mag. N . H . x. 260, 1842) differs from the other Ocelots in having a grey fur with whitish sides. There are several specimens which agree in this peculiarity. The grey specimens offer several variations in the spotting, like the fulvous specimens. One specimen has a rather yellow tint in the middle of the back ; otherwise the grey colour seems permanent. Mr. Blyth has observed that the smaller and darker Spotted Cats become more fulvous as they attain full age ; but that cannot explain the greyness of these specimens, as there are adult as well as young specimens of the grey colour. Felis melanura (Ball, P. Z. S. 1844, p. 128) is a most strongly marked specimen, and in the whole series of specimens in the Museum stands alone for the intensity and clearness of the marking, both black, white, and fulvous. It may be a variety in which the colours, especially the black, are very much more developed than usual, and therefore the spots have become confluent, until the whole animal may be described as black with white and fulvous spots. It is not the common melanism, where the whole fur has become more or less black, the black spots being only a little more intense. We have an Ocelot of this latter variety in the British Museum ; but it bears no resemblance to the type specimen described by Mr. Ball, which is also in the Museum collection. In the British Museum there is a very small Spotted Ocelot, which may be recorded as a species or variety under the name of F. pardoides. The fur is grey, with a very large number of nearly equal-sized round or oblong dark spots; the spots on the loins and rump are larger, with a pale centre ; the cheeks and nape with black streaks ; belly white, with large black spots; tail ringed. Length of body and head 26, tail 13 inches. Hab. Tropical America. The species or varieties are to a certain extent permanent; the young, in some instances at least, are like their parents; and the markings do not change with age (that is to say, they are the same on the kitten as on the adult); and there.are adult specimens that are grey as well as fulvous, or fulvous and white; so that the grey colour does not depend on the youth of the specimen, as has been suggested. Three species of small Spotted Cats have been described as inhabiting South and Tropical America. All these three species may be distinguished from the Ocelots (Felis pardina) by the smaller size of the head, and the spots not being united together in chains; but the latter character is not to be observed in all Ocelots. As these Cats, like the other Spotted Cats, vary greatly in the form, size, and disposition of the spots, the determination of the species has been attended with considerable difficulty, and it has been suggested that perhaps there are more than one species of the long-tailed American |