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Show 1887.] NOMENCLATURE OF INDIAN MAMMALS. 629 Jerdon' in this, as in other points, has followed Blyth closely, but he remarked (p. 107) of the supposed F. jerdoni that it might prove only a small variety of F. bengalensis. In treating of F. rubiginosa, however (p. 109), he suggested that the Ceylon species referred to that Cat by Kelaart might perhaps be F. jerdoni of Blyth, which, he went on to say, " that gentleman recently writes me is perhaps the representative of F. rubiginosa on the Malabar coast. In the British Museum there is a specimen stated to be from Malacca, but Mr. Blyth is inclined to think that a mistake." Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his illustrated 'Monograph of the Felidae ' (1883), separated these Spotted Cats into two species, which he called F. bengalensis and F.javanensis ; but he gave no reasons for so doing, and omitted to point out wherein these two supposed species differ from each other. He included several of the forms enumerated by Gray and Fitzinger under each of the two types. Both in the monograph and in a paper published in the Society's Proceedings2, M r . Elliot classes F. jerdoni as a variety of F. rubiginosa, and says that both Blyth and Jerdon agreed in this identification after examining the specimens 3. In this view, as will he seen presently, I am unable to concur. The only other writer on the subject whom I shall quote is Dr. Mivart, who in his work on the Cat distinguishes as separate kinds P. bengalensis, F. wagati, F. chinensis, F. minuta, F. jerdoni, and F. javanensis. F. rubiginosa is classed by all as distinct, and of its distinctness there can be no question. The anterior upper premolar p- 2 is always wanting, in adults at all events, as in the Lynxes, and the bony orbit in the skull is complete behind. In F. bengalensis and its varieties, out of more than 40 specimens examined I have only seen two in which the anterior upper premolar is absent on both sides, and the bony- orbit is never complete behind. There is also a character in the external coloration by which every specimen I have examined of both forms can be at once distinguished. In all these Cats a variable number of interrupted dark lines pass from the forehead over the head and hind neck to the interscapulary tract. Usually there are four well-marked bands on the head; of these the two inner are continued between the shoulders in F. rubiginosa by two long, straight, slightly diverging dark lines, without any lines or spots between them. In F. bengalensis and its allies there are never these two lines alone ; either the markings are all broken and interrupted, or other lines and spots intervene between the continuations of the two inner frontal bands. The tail, too, in F. rubiginosa is unspotted above ; in all forms of the Leopard-cat distinctly spotted. There is in the Natural History Department of the British Museum at present a very fine series of these Indian and Malayan i ' Mammals of India,' pp. 105-107 (1867). 2 P. Z. S. 1871, p. 760. 3 This is confirmed by Mr. Holdsworth, so far as regards Mr. Blyth, P. Z. S. 1871, p- 758. |