India by the late Mr. Devis, we are strongly inclined to think that there are two distinct species of the Canine Cats, agreeing in general description, particularly in the want of the retractile power of the claws, the one with a mane and the other without; the former proper to Africa, and the latter to India. The Indian or maneless species appears also to us to be taller, and to have a longer neck, smaller head, and shorter muzzle than the other.

The Hunting Leopard, it is said, is conveyed in a carriage, or on a pad behind the saddle of a horseman, with a hood over the eyes, to the field, and when the game, Antelopes, &c., is started, the hood is taken off, and it is sent out in pursuit. It follows by leaps or bounds, and if unsuccessful in taking its prey after a few efforts, declines the pursuit, and returns to its keeper.

Specimens of large black Felinæ have been frequently quoted as distinct species, as the Felis Chalybeata of Herman, which M. F. Cuvier pronounces decidedly to be the common Panther or Leopard badly coloured; the Felis Melas of Peron, said by the Baron to be a Black Leopard; the Jaguaraté of d'Azara, the Black Cougouar of Pennant, &c. Major Smith has a drawing he refers to this last species; the form of the animal is that of the Cougouar; the cheeks to the ears, the throat, and belly, are white, the rest of the animal black. "There is," says the Major, a Black Tiger in the mountains of Chitagong pretty common, probably the same species as that brought to this country by Mr. Hastings; and there is also an un described Panther, of considerable size and of a dark co lour, with very numerous black rose and conglomerate spots, at Erlangen."

66

We rather apprehend that most of the known Felinæ are apt to vary to a uniform black, and we have drawings which may be attributed to the Black Jaguar and the Black Leopard.

But it may be proper not to pass over a specimen which

was in Mr. Bullock's late Museum, and we believe is now in Germany. It was wholly of a grayish, liver-colour, or chocolate and white mixed upon each hair, marked with more opaque round full dark brown spots and blotches The tail was darker than the body, and annulated with about twelve darker rings, the tip being black. The back of the ears was black, with a white spot in the middle; the insides whitish. Three rows of barbs formed the whiskers. It measured two feet nine inches in length, the tail one foot three inches, and was a male. This may be the Jaguaroundi of the Brasilians, but the peculiarity of its colour seems to bespeak it distinct The drawing is by Major Smith, who, without insisting on it as an undescribed species, names the animal conditionally Felis Chalybeata?

Of the Ocelots, a group in the Feline family of middlingsized Cats, distinguished by yellow spots more or less oval, bordered with black, several individuals have been described, but whether any or all of these were varieties or distinct species, may be doubted. D'Azara considers them all as a single species. Our author makes three specifically different; and we shall have occasion to submit the figures of some others which appear to us to be distinct.

The Jaguar of Buffon is evidently and very erroneously one of these. It will be seen by the table that this species is identified by modern zoologists with the Tlatco-Ocelots of Hermandez and the Chibigouazou of Azara, and is figured by F. Cuvier under the name of Chati. His figure is copied here, in order that it may be compared with the others from drawings by Major Smith, one of which that gentleman refers, though not without hesitation, to the Tlatco-Ocelots of Hermandez, and the Jaguar of Buffon, and the other to the Chibigouazou.

We had written some observations on this group of the Felina when Major Smith favoured us with his sentiments.

upon them, which, with his permission, we shall insert in his own words, illustrated with engravings from his drawings, referred to in the description:

66

My present view of the Ocelots," says he, "is that they form a subordinate group in the great family of the Felinæ. As a general character, I would describe them as being of middle size, between the larger and the small Cats, of more slender and elegant proportions, without tufts on the ears, the spots diverging more or less in concatenations or streaks from the shoulders backwards and downwards, and, as far as I have hitherto observed, the pupil of the eye round. (Of this last character, however, I am still very doubtful, and my doubt arises from the probability that all the living specimens which I examined were, from the very circumstance of attentive inspection, under a state of alarm, and therefore with the pupils dilated.) They belong all to the New World, but there are two or three species of the Old that approach them in several particulars, and therefore might make the next group. I shall refer in the following descriptions to my drawings numerically. My appropriation of their types to species hitherto described, must, in our present state of knowledge, be conditional only.

"Felis Ocelot, No. 1.-Of this both the male and female are rufous on the nose, face, neck, and shoulders; on the back and upper part of the tail they are white, very slightly tinged with reddish and gray; on the under parts of the head, throat, legs, breast, belly, and hams, there is white running up the rump and sides between the streaks and spots in dichotomous rows. These two colours, the rufous and the white, are separated by black streaks in spotted lines, forming very elongated rays, and on the rufous colour within the rays are a few black specks. On the hams and thighs there are large black blotches. The tail has blotches variously figured above, and smaller spots underVOL. II.

2 K