7 MAMMALIA. 



destruction, so many more have been killed than born that they are 

 now well ni<^h exterminated. However, a few still remain, and some 



^j 



years may yet elapse before the last Panther disappears from the 

 dense evergreen swamps and high rocky ridges of this Wilderness. 



For many of the facts related in the following narrative of the hab- 

 its of this gigantic "Cat." I am indebted to the experienced hunter 

 and guide, Mr. E. L. Sheppard, who has himself killed, or been in- 

 strumental in killing, twenty-eight Panthers in the Adirondacks. 



Cougars are either particularly fond of porcupines, or else are 

 frequently forced by hunger to make a distasteful meal, for certain it 

 is that large numbers of these spiny beasts are destroyed by them. 

 Indeed, it often happens that a Panther is killed whose mouth and lips, 

 and sometimes other parts also, fairly bristle with the quills of this 

 formidable rodent. Porcupines are such logy, sluggish creatures, that 

 in their noctivagations they fall an easy prey to any animal that 

 cares to meddle with them. 



But the Panther feeds chiefly upon venison, which he captures by 

 " still-hunting," in a way not unlike, save in the manner of killing, 

 that practised by its greatest enemy man. Both creep stealthily 

 upon the intended victim until within range, when the one springs, 

 the other shoots. 



Panthers hunt both by day and by night, but undoubtedly kill the 

 larger part of their game after nightfall. When one scents a deer he 

 keeps to the leeward and creeps stealthily toward it, as a cat does 

 after a mouse. With noiseless tread and crouching form does he 



shall he paid to any person or persons who shall kill any of said animals within the boundaries of 

 this State. The person or persons obtaining said bounty shall prove the death of the animal so 

 killed by him or them, by producing satisfactory affidavits, and the skull and skin of said animal, 

 before the supervisor and one of the justices of the peace of the town within the boundaries of 

 which the said animal was killed. Whereupon said supervisor and justice of the peace, in the pres- 

 ence of each other, shall burn and destroy the said skull, and brand the said skin so that it maybe 

 thereafter identified," etc. thus ruining many valuable specimens. (Laws of 1871, chap. 721, 

 39-) When the game laws were repealed, in 1879, this section became a part of the new law, and 

 it may be found in the Laws of 1879, chap. 534, tj 31. 



May 5, 1874, a law was passed providing the sum of $500, or so much thereof as might be neces- 

 sary for the payment of bounties in pursuance of the requirements of the above law of April 26, 

 1871, chap. 721, 39. (See Laws of 1874, chap. 323, ^2.) But nearly double this amount has 

 already been paid on Panthers alone (see p. 39). 



