OCR Text |
Show 244 DR. GtTNTHER ON A VARIETY OF FELIS LEOPARDUS. [Mar. 3, the same district, and is at present preserved in the Museum of Grahamstown J; that the ordinary kind of Leopard is c o m m o n in the locality, that the Cheetah is very scarce, and that the Lion has been entirely exterminated for a considerable period. The points in which the skin differs from the ordinary type are the following :- The ground-colour is tawny with a rich orange gloss about the shoulders. Of the rosettes only a few indications are preserved, namely on the haunches, where two are visible on the right side, whilst they form an irregular confluent pattern on the left. Remains of rosettes are also visible, one on each shoulder close to the verticelli of hairs which are usually developed in this place in the Leopard, Lion, &c. T w o pairs of similar rudimentary rosettes succeed these at intervals of about 10 inches. The remainder of the rosettes are broken up into, or replaced by, innumerable small separate spots, which are most distinct in and behind the region of the shoulder, and on the outer sides of the legs. They are more diffuse on the flanks, where they mix with the ground-colour, producing a brownish tinge. Finally on the back, from the forehead to the sacral region, they are more or less confluent, so that the whole of the back appears to be of black colour, which is most intense above the lumbar region. A few black spots on the upper lip, a conspicuous black spot above each eye surrounded by a light yellowish ring, and a large black spot on the back of the ear are present as in Leopards with typical coloration. On the other hand, the tail differs in a remarkable manner, it being fulvous for its first two thirds, which colour gradually changes into pale grey ; the whole tail is sprinkled with numerous very small and clearly defined spots, the extreme tip being black. Chin, chest, belly, and inside of the legs white with large black spots as in the ordinary Leopard. Whiskers and claws white, hair between the foot-pads black. The hairs are of about the ordinary length, with a very thick underfur on the sides of the body. The measurements of the flat skin are as follows:-Head and body 4 feet 1 inch, tail 2 feet 6 inches ; distance of central line of back from the fore toes 2 feet 6 inches. In endeavouring to throw some light on this extraordinary deviation from the ordinary type, we are almost entirely limited to the evidence to be gleaned from the specimen before us. The possibility of its being a hybrid between the Leopard and one of the other large feline animals of South Africa is to be considered. There is a very evident mixture of two patterns of coloration, viz. of that in which the ornamental colour appears in the form of rosettes, and that of simple black spots as in the Cheetah. Yet the whole build of the animal and the structure of the typically feline claws prevent us from assuming that the Cheetah might be one of the parents. It would be more within the bounds of possibility that our specimen is the offspring of a Leopard with a Lioness which had 1 This is evidently the same specimen which was described by Mr. Trimen in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 535. |