Full text |
FELIS GEOFFROYL
GEORFROY'S CAT.
LHOPARDUS HIMALAYANUS, J.B. Gray, Cat Mamm Beit. Mus (1848) p44 (dese ul),
IS GEOPFROYI, D'Orbig. Mag. Zo
Hist Nat. Mam. (188) p- 1—Bara
Za. Sc. (1870) p76
ONCIFELIS GEOFPROYI, Serr Ret Mag. Zoo 1855) p. 386
PARDALINA WARWICK, .B. Gray, Poe Zoo. Soc. (1867) pp. 267, 45, pl xni—14.Cat Cara Mam. (1600) p. 14. Ann. & M
Nat Mist, (1874) v0 ap. 80, oli p 04
PELIS PARDINOIDES, JE. Gra, Pree, Zao. Soc. (1867) p.400-—1a, Cat. Car. Mam. (1860 . 23-—Bliot, Poe. Zool. So
(872) p 208-J. B Gray, Ann. Fa
PANTHERA GEOFFROYI, Fit, Stern. Akad. Wis Wie, (189) lx.
WARWICKII, Slat, Pros. Za. Soe. (1870) p 796
ELIS GUITULA, ene, Konigl Akad. Ber, (1872) p
Native name Gat mont
Han. Pampas of Buenos Ayres to 44°. lat. (D'Onnsoxy) ; Argentine Republic (Buas1sr22).
‘Tus very dstnet and well-marked species has a confused though not lengthy synonymy. An individual formerly alive in
the Surrey Zoological Gardens, and there known ax the Himalaya Cat, was called by the late Dr. J. E. Gray, in hie “List
of Mammalia in the British Muscum,’ published in 1843, Zeopardus Aimalayanus; but no deseription of the animal was
tulded. As this habitat is now ascertained to have been incorrect, and as the continuation of Dr. Gray's name would
of the
Simply be the means of increasing the confusion already existing in the nomenclature
tdopted it. In 1847 DOsbigny procured specimens of this animal on the banks of the Rio
them (le) on his retum to Burope as Felis geofroyi, depositing his types in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes in
Paris. In his account of the species he says that it inhabits the Pampas of Buenos Ayres to the 4th degree of south
Tattude, and is common everywhere on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, living in the reeds, and subsisting upon the var
Proceedings” of the Zoologieal Society of London for 1867, Dr. Gray
species of ‘Tinamous and Eudromias. In the
proposed for the present species the generic term of Pardalina, and changed the specific appellation he hd formerly
hestowed upon it to wancicli, giving at the same time a characteristic fgure of the creature by Wolf. In his ‘Catalogue
‘of Camivora (1809), the species is more particulasly described under the name last given.
f geographical race of this species (although I have been unable to discover that itis confined to any particular districts,
Specimens having been received from the same localities in which the typical F.geofroyi is found) which has been called
Felis pardinoides by Dr. Gray (. ¢), deseribed from a young animal, and latterly Felis guttula by Herr Hensel (lc
in my Plat, taken from an example in the Leyden Museum, kindly loaned
Tis varity is represented by the lower figu
to me by Prof, Schlegel, and whi om Patagonia. As willbe seen, it differs from the typical style by having
larger spots upon the flanks, with Terr Hensel sent the skulls to Berlin, where
T hid an opportunity of examining them through the Kindness of Dr. Peter. ‘There were two, belonging to male and
Ik; and I could pereeive nothing tha indicated they represented a species distinct from F. geofroyi. Fully
11 knowing also that large- and smnallspotted
this diferently
female individual
aware of the curious and often extraordinary varitis that are met with,
individuals are found among all the species of the Spotted Cats, Iam not surprised at the occurrence
marked form, and do not consider it to be ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for 1874 (vol xii),
Dr. Gray separated the F. geofroyi, D'Orb. (making it a synonym of F. guigna, Molina), from his Pardalina warwick, on
acount ofits“ having a white belly instead of that part being spotted.” ‘This last statement, however, is quite incorrect, |