MC1R and freckles: The Geoffroy’s cat in particular exhibits patterns of variation that deviate from neutral expectation, with all melanism-bearing chromosomes carrying three non-synonymous mutations in MC1R-coding sequence, and reduced levels of nucleotide diversity in a region ~50 kb upstream of MC1R. Potential selection for melanism in the Geoffroy’s cat may have occurred earlier than in the pampas cat; alternatively, or in addition, a potentially higher recombination rate at MC1R than at ASIP may have diminished the size of an extended haplotype in the Geoffroy’s cat.