Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/459

Rh CAKNIVOKA.] MAMMALIA 435 fifty species, of which the following are the most important and best known. A. Old- World Species. For F. leo, see LION ; and for jP. tigris, see TIGER. With regard to F. pardus, the Leopard or Panther, it is still a matter of un certainty whether the large spotted Cats to which these names are given, found chiefly in wooded districts through nearly the whole of Africa and the warmer parts of Asia as far as Japan, belong to one or several species. See LEOPARD. F, uncia, the Ounce, inhabits the highlands of Central Asia, from the snowy mountains of Tibet to the southern parts of Siberia, at altitudes of from 9000 to 18,000 feet above the sea. It is about the size of the common Leopard, but lighter in colour, with longer fur and less distinct spots. Its skull differs in shape from that of all the other Felidaz, the facial portion being very broad, the nasal bones especially being wide and depressed, and the zygomatic arches very strong and deep. F. macrocclis, the Clouded Tiger, is a beautifully marked species, with elongated head and body, long tail, and rather short limbs. The canine teeth are proportionally longer than in any exist ing member of the genus. It is thoroughly arboreal, and is found in the forests of south-east Asia and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Formosa. F. serval, the Serval, from South Africa, is yellow with black spots, and has a short tail and large ears. Numerous smaller species called Tiger Cats and Wild Cats, many of them by no means clearly defined zoologically, are found through out the warmer parts of Asia and Africa. The Wild Cat of Europe, F. cntns, still inhabits the mountainous and wooded parts of Great Britain. The Domestic Cat is an introduced species, and generally supposed to be derived from F, maniculata of Egypt and Syria. Moderate-sized Cats, with short tails, rather long limbs, especially the hinder ones, ami tufts or pencils of hair on their ears, are called Lynxes. See LYNX. B. New-World Species. F. concolor, the Puma or Couguar, commonly called &quot; Panther&quot; in the United States, is about the size of a Leopard, but of an uni form brown colour, spotted only when young, and is extensively distributed in both North and South America, ranging between the parallels of 60 N. and 50 S. F. onca, the Jaguar, is a larger and more powerful animal than the last, and more resembles the Leopard in its colours. It also is found in both North and South America, but with less extensive range, reaching northwards only as far as Texas, and southwards nearly to Patagonia. See JAGUAR. F. pardalis, and several allied smaller elegantly-spotted species in habiting the intratropical regions of America, are commonly con founded under the name of Ocelot or Tiger Cat. F. yaguarundi, rather larger than the Domestic Cat, with an elongated head and body, and of a uniform brownish-grey colour, ranges from Mata- moras to Paraguay. F. eyra is a small Cat, very Musteline in form, having an elongated head, body, and tail, and short limbs, and is also of a uniform light reddish-brown colour. It is a native of South America and Mexico. F. pajeros is the Pampas Cat. Four species of Lynx are described from North America, but it is doubtful whether these are specifically distinct from each other and from the Lynx of northern Europe. 2. Cijn&luriis. Sometimes considered as a distinct genus. The Cheetah orHuuting Leopard, F.j ubaUi, is distinguished from the other Felidse, by the inner lobe of the upper sectorial, though supported by a distinct root, having no salient cusp upon it, by the tubercular molar being more in a line with the other teeth, and by the claws being smaller, less curved, and less completely retractile, owing to the feebler development of the elastic ligaments. The skull is short and high, with the frontal region broad and elevated in consequence of the large development of the frontal air-sinuses. The head is small and round, the body light, the limbs and tail long. Its colour is pale yellowish-brown with small black spots. The Cheetah is less savage and more easily tamed than most of the Cats. In Asia it has been trained for the chase of the Antelope. It has rather an extensive geographical range from the Cape of Good Hope, through out Africa and the south-western parts of Asia, as far as southern India. Fossil Felidaz. Numerous extinct species of the genus are found in Pleistocene, Pliocene, and even later Miocene deposits in Europe, Asia, and America. Among them is the Cave Lion, F. spelxa, which can scarcely be separated specifically from F. leo, and of which abundant remains are found in caves in England and other parts of Europe. F. cristata, from the Siwalik Hills, intermediate in size between a Tiger and Jaguar, is distinguished from the other Felidse, by the shortness of the face as compared with the cranial part of the skull. These and many others, mostly of smaller size, present no greater modifications of form than the various existing members of the genus Felis, and can therefore be properly included within its limits; but numerous other forms are gradually becoming known, especially through the researches of American palaeontologists, which, though evidently animals of the same general type and therefore to be included in the family Felidse, depart so much in various details of structure that they must be placed in different genera. As one of the points in which Felis manifests its special ization is the reduction of the number of the molar series of teeth with concomitant shortening of the jaws, it might be supposed that in the earlier and perhaps ancestral forms these teeth would be more numerous and approach more nearly to the primitive or typical number of the heterodont mammals, viz., seven on each side. This is actually the case. One European form (also recently found in America) to which Gervais has given the name of Pscudselurus, of Miocene age, has the dentition of Felis with an addition of one premolarin the lower jaw; but others have a still larger number, as Archselurus debilis of Cope from the American Miocene, about the size of a Panther, which has four premolars and a tubercular mohir in the upper jaw, and three premolars and two molars in the lower jaw. A tubercular molar in the lower jaw, behind the sectorial, also occurs in ^Elurogale, Dinictis, and Ximravus. Another tendency to generalization is the existence in some forms, as Hoplophoneux, of a posterior lobe or heel to the inferior sectorial, found in nearly all Carnivores except the existing Fclidte. On the other hand some of the extinct Felidee show a most remarkable tendency towards a specialization not occurring in any of the surviving members of the family, viz., an enormous development of the upper canines, with which is usually associated an expansion downwards and flattening of the anterior part of the ramus of the lower jaw, on the outer side of which the canine lies, when the mouth is closed. In Smilodon nesocjeus, the Sabre-toothed Tiger, from the caves of Brazil and also from Pleistocene deposits near Buenos Ayres, an animal about tho size of a Tiger, these teeth are 7 inches in length, greatly compressed, and finely serrated on the trenchant anterior edges. Similar serra tions are seen on a much fainter scale in the unworn teeth of modern Tigers. Manymodificationsof this commonly-called &quot;machajrodont&quot; type have been met with both in the Old and New World to which the names of Machxrodtls, Drepanodon, Smilodon, Ho ploplionevx, Dinictis, Pogonodon, &c. , have been given. A very remarkable form, Eusmilus, differs from all other known Felines in having only four incisors in the lower jaw, and a pair of small canines separated by a very long diastema from the next teeth, which consist only of one premolar and one sectorial true molar. The lower jaw is enormously expanded towards the symphysis to protect the large upper canines. This animal then, although of Eocene age, appears to form the culminating development of the sabre-toothed or machffi- rodont dentition, the most specially carnivorous type of structure known. Cope divides all the known Feline animals into two families, Felidse and Nimravidie, 1 distinguished by the characters of the foramina at the base of the cranium, the former being of more modern origin than the latter, the members of which are all extinct, and which seem to connect the Cats with still more primitive types of Carniwra. Family VIVERRIP.S;. Premolars orf. Molars or f. Auditory bulla externally con stricted, and divided by a septum. An alisphenoid canal (with very rare exceptions). Carotid canal distinct as a groove on the side of the bulla. Digits usually 5-5, but sometimes the pollex or hallux or both may be wanting. Dorsal vertebrae 13 or 14. Limited in distribution to the Old World. The suStamily Cryptoproctinse contains the single genus Oryp- toproda. Dentition : i f, c {-, p f , m {- = f ; total 36. The teeth generally closely resemble those of the Felidss. The first premolar of both jaws is very minute and early deciduous. The upper sectorial has a very small inner lobe, quite at the anterior part of the tooth. The true molar is very small and placed transversely. The lower sectorial has a large trenchant bilobed blade, and a very minute heel, but no inner tubercle. Skull generally like that of Felis, but proportionately longer and narrower. Orbit widely open behind. Vertebra: C 7, D 13, L 7, S 3, C 29. Body elongated. Limbs moderate in size. Feet subplantigrade ; five well-developed toes on each, with sharp, compressed, retractile claws. Ears mode rate. Tail long and cylindrical. The only known species, C. ferox, the &quot; Foussa &quot; of the Malagasy, is peculiar to Madagascar, being the largest carnivorous animal in the island. It is about twice the size of the common Cat (5 feet from nose to end of tail), with short close fur of nearly uniform pale brown. Little is as yet known of its habits, except that it is nocturnal, fre quently attacks and carries off goats, and especially kids, and shows great ferocity when wounded, on which account it is much dreaded by the natives. The remaining numerous specific and generic modifications found in the existing animals belonging to this family seem to group themselves mainly into two tolerably distinct groups, distinguishable by the characters of the auditory bulla and neighbouring parts of the base of the skull, and by the structure of the feet. The one form has the genus Vivcrra or Civet Cats for its most typical repre sentative, and the other Herpestcs or the Ichneumons. Subfamily Viverrinse. Auditory bulla oval or rather conical, broad and truncated and not everted behind, narrow in front and i &quot; On the Extinct Cats nf America,&quot; American Naturalitt, December 1880.