FELIS GEOFFROYI
G EO F FRO Y ’S CAT.
LEOPARDUS HIMALAYANUS, J. E. Gray, Cat. Mamm. Brit. Mus. (1843) p. 44 (desc. nulla).
FELIS GEOFFROYI, D’Orbig. Mag. Zool. (1844) Mamm. pl. 57.—Id. Voy. Amer. Mérid. Mamm. (1847) p. 21, t. 13, t. 14 (skull).—Gerv.
Hist. Nat. Mamm. (1 8 5 5 ) p. 91.—Burm. La Plata-Reis. vol. ii. p. 397.—J. E. Gray, Cat. Carn. Mamm. (1869) p. 23.—Sclat. Proc.
Zool Soc. (18 7 0 ) p. 796.
ONCIFELIS GEOFFROYI, Severtz. Rev. Mag. Zool. (1858) p. 386.
PARDALINA WARWICKI, J. E. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (18 6 7 ) pp. 267, 405, pl. xxiv.—Id. Cat. Carn. Mamm. (18 6 9 ) p. 14.—Id. Ann. & Mag.
Nat. Hist. (1874) vol. xiii. p. 50, vol. xiv. p. 354.
FELIS PARDINOIDES, J. E. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1 8 6 7 ) p. 400.—Id., Cat. Cam. Mamm. (1 8 6 9 ) p. 27. sp. 23.—Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc.
(1 8 7 2 ) p. 203.—J. E. Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1 8 7 4 ) vol. xiii. pp. 56, 475, vol. xiv. p. 354.
PANTHERA GEOFFROYI, Fitzin. Sitzungsb. Akad. Wiss. Wien, (1869) lix. p. 270.
FELIS WARWICKII, Sclat. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1870) p. 796.
FELIS GUTTULA, Hensel, Königl. Akad. Berlin, (1 8 7 2 ) p. 73.
Nàtivé name Gato montes.
H a b . Pampas of Buenos Ayres to 4 4 ° S. lat. (D ’O r b ig n y ) ; Argentine Republic (B ü r m e I s t e r ).
T h i s very distinct and well-marked species has a confused though not lengthy synonymy. An individual formerly alive in
the Surrey Zoological Gardens, and there known as the Himalaya Cat, was called by the late Dr. J. E. Gray, in his ‘List
of Mammalia in the British Museum,’ published in 1843, Leopard/us Umalayanus ; but no description of the animal was
added. As this habitat is now ascertained to have been incorrect, and as the continuation of Dr. Gray’s name would
simply be thè means of increasing the confusion already existing in the nomenclature of the species, I have not
adopted it. In 1847 D’Orbigny procured • specimens of this animal on the banks of the Rio Negro, and described
them (I. c.) on his return to Europe as Felis geoffiroyi, 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 44th degree of south
latitude, and is common everywhere on the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, living in the reeds, and subsisting upon the various
species of Tinamous and Eudromias. In the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society of London for 1867, Dr. Gray
proposed for the present species the generic term of Pardalina, and changed the specific appellation he had formerly
bestowed upon it to warmcki, giving at the same time a characteristic figure of the creature by Wolf. In his ‘Catalogue
of Carnivora ’ (1869), the species is more particularly described under the name last given. There is a variety, possibly
a geographical race, of this species (although I have been unable to discover that it is confined to any particular districts,
specimens having been received from the same localities in which the typical F. geoffroyi is found) which has been called
Felis pardinoides by Dr. Gray (I. c.), described from a young animal, and latterly Felis guttula by Herr Hensel (I. c.).
This variety is represented by the lower figure in my Plate, taken from an example in the Leyden Museum, kindly loaned
to me by Prof. Schlegel, and which came from Patagonia. As will be seen, it differs from the typical style by having
larger spots upon the flanks, with light centres, forming irregular blotches. Herr Hensel sent the skulls to Berlin, where
I had an opportunity of examining them through the kindness of Dr. Peters. There were two, belonging to male and
female individuals ; and I could perceive nothing that indicated they represented a species distinct from F. geoffiroyi. Fully
aware of the curious and often extraordinary varieties that are met with, and knowing also that large- and small-spotted
individuals are found among all the species of the Spotted Cats, I am not surprised at the occurrence of this differently
marked form, and do not consider it to be distinct. In the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History ’ for 1874 (vol. xiii.),
Dr. Gray separated the F. geoffiroyi, D’Orb. (making it a synonym of F. guigna, Molina), from his Pardalina warmcki, on
account of its “ having a white belly, instead of that part being spotted.” This last statement, however, is quite incorrect,