TWO NEW SOUTH AMERICAN JAGUARS.By N. HOLLISTER,Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals, United States National Museum.The series of jaguars in the collection of the United States NationalMuseum now includes, besides numerous zoological park specimens,the skulls of 36 wild-killed animals. A study of this material givesa very good idea of the individual variation in the skull, and of some ofthe local forms of this great cat. In addition to the three forms rec-ognized by Dr. E. A. Mearns from north of Panama, three well-marked South American species are represented in the collection, twoof which appear to be without names. The most important charac-ters distinguishing these forms were pointed out by Doctor Mearnsin his paper.
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FELIS PARAGUENSIS, new species.Ty2?e.?United States National Museum No. 4128, skull of maleadult (basal suture closed) ; collected in Paraguay by Capt. T. J. Page,United States Navy. Catalogued June, 1860.Characters.?Skull largest of the jaguars, much larger than skullof Felis onca from Brazil (and exceeding in measurements the largestCorean tigress skull examined), elongated and comparatively lowcrowned, with very high and strongly developed sagittal crest;, auditalbullae large and greatly inflated, angular and flattened on surfaces,completely filling space to the mastoid and paroccipital processes,almost twice the bulk of the bullae in any Brazilian specimen. Teethactually slightly larger, but relatively of about same size as in onca.Measurements.?^Type skull compared v/ith a slightly older malefrom Santarem, Brazil, the latter in parentheses: Greatest length,303 (269) mm. ; condylobasal length, 265 (234) ; zygomatic breadth,196 (183); median line nasals, 61.7 (56.6); center of crown to tip ofpremaxillary bones, 146 (137); center of crown to maxillary tuberos-ity, 117 (108); audital bulla, 40.5 by 37 (30.2 by 29.8). Teeth:Length pm^-pm\ 48.3 (45.2); upper carnassial, 28.8 by 15.2 (26.6 by15.2). Skull of adult female from Paraguay: Greatest length, 248mm.; condylobasal length, 220; zygomatic breadth, 179; lengthpm^-pm*, 42.5.Remarlcs.?^This form is based on two skulls from Paraguay. Thesehave been compared with six skulls of true onca from Brazil andVenezuela, all of which, with one exception, are very uniform in
1 The American Jaguars, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 14, pp. 137-143, Aug. 9, 1901.Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol, 48?No. 2069.
170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.48.size and characteristics, including the presence of the wide sulcusbetween the mastoid process and the audital bulla. The single ex-ception, an adult male skull collected by Captain Page at LakeUbiraba, between Bolivia and Matto Grosso, Brazil, August, 1859,resembles the skulls from the Amazon region in every particular,except that it is much higher crowned (center of crown to maxillarytuberosity, 114.5) and has considerably greater postorbital and inter-orbital breadth. It shows no approach in characters toward theParaguay skulls.Fitzinger ^ based a name, alba, principally on references to accountsof jaguars from Paraguay, but the name is preoccupied by Felis albaFischer ^ for a tiger. The Felis nigra of Erxleben is a synonym ofFelis onca. FELIS NOTIALIS, new species.Type.?United States National Museum No. 4361, skull of [male]adult (basal suture obliterated); collected at San Jose, Entre Rios,Ai-gentina, August, 1860, by Capt. T. J. Page, United States Navy.Characters.?Skull small, very much smaller than in the neighbor-ing form, Felis paraguensis, and slightly less in size than in true onca,much lower crowned and less arched; interorbital constriction less;nasals longer; antorbital foramina more rounded, less oval; squamosalarm of zygoma v.'Caker; anterior opening of nares smaller, morerounded; audital bullae very low and little inflated, \vith wide spacebetween them and rims of mastoid and paroccipital processes.Premolars very large, larger than in the much greater Paraguay form,but canhies relatively smaller.Measurements.?^Type skull: Greatest length, 264 mm.; zygomaticbreadth, 176; median length nasals, 65.3; center of crown to tip ofpremaxillary bones, 141 ; center of crown to maxiUary tuberosity, 102.Teeth: Length pm^-pm^, 49.9 [in male onca, 43.8-47.5]; uppercarnassial, 30.7 by 15.5 [in onca 26.6-28.2 by 14.6-15.3].Bemarlcs.?This form is based on a single specimen. Compared withsix skulls of true onca, this specimen is at once distinguishable by itsmuch larger carnassials and the peculiarly low audital bullae. Theform represented is even more widely different from its nearestneighbor, the giant Paraguay species with the swollen bullae, thanfrom the Brazilian FeUs onca.EXPLANATION OF PLATE 5.Audital bullae of jaguars (natural size).Fig. 1. Felis onca, Cat. No. 49393, U.S.N.M., Amazon River near Santarem, Brazil.Collected by Clarence B. Riker.2. Felis paragmnsis, Cat. No. 4128, U.S.N.M., Paraguay. Collected by Capt.T. J. Page. Type-specimen.
1 Sitz.-ber. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. 59, 1 Abth., pp. 218-220, 1869.2 Syn. Mamm. , p. 566, 1829.
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