.iV.>v7 PAh'THERS. 267 



and sometimes, in the case of fur, of environment, and are not peculiar to 

 the panther. In older animals one naturally finds more pigmentation, 

 resulting in a brighter-coloured coat. In cold climates thicker and longer 

 fur and an under pelage may be expected. In open country colour is 

 naturally lighter than in dense forest where darker animals are found. 

 The tendency appears to be for coloration to approximate to the environ- 

 ment, as in the desert-born which assimilate to the colour of the soil. 

 While this is an outcome of evolution, its rapid effects may be seen in the 

 case of fish. You will find blue trout in the glacial streams of Norway, 

 and pull black ones from the gloomy depths of rocky pools. There is a 

 species of spider in the South of France which adapts itself to the colour 

 of the flower it frequents, and will change colour in a few days when trans- 

 ferred from one flower to another of diflerent hue. 



2. Coloration. 



Panthers from diS"erent localities vary considerably in coloration, which 

 in certainly remarkably protective, both by day and in the dusk or at 

 night. I had great difliculty in distinguishing one that I had shot which 

 was lying dead under some bushes where it blended with the chequered 

 sunshine and the shadow of the leaves ; and when looking for and expect- 

 ing to see a panther, I have been on the point of firing at such a chequered 

 patch of sunlight and shadow. At night a panther will flit from shade to 

 shade like some evanescent phantom, even in bright moonlight, and it 

 blends like a shadow with the dusk. 



A remarkable skin from the Deccan was described in the Field of thi- 

 18th January 1908 in the following terms: — "Although the black mark- 

 ings present some approximation in pattern and mode of arrangement to 

 the jaguar type, the head and back are ornamented by an altogether 

 peculiar kind of meshed network of broad buft' lines, the first mesh which 

 occupies the head being much larger than all the others." This may be a 

 hybrid between a tiger and a panther, although the note on the subject 

 states that the markings present no approximation to the tiger type, and 

 that tigers are seldom found in the district. The latter reason rather 

 favours the hybrid theory, mating being more likely to occur where the 

 tiger has perhaps wandered far from the haunts of his own species. Such 

 a hybrid is recorded in a book by Mr. Hicks of the Forest Department, 

 but the skin was destroyed and is not described. It is not stated in 

 what district of the Deccan the skin described in the Fidd was 

 obtained. Among panthers which I killed in a district of the Deccan 

 a few years ago was one which slightly approximated to the jaguar type 

 in having a central spot in each rosette on the back. I shot some twenty 

 panthers in that district but this was the only one so marked. The 

 hybrid theory in the instance recorded in the Field seems most probable. 

 There have been authentic cases of lions and panthers inter-breeding in 

 captivity, and the tiger seems more proximate to the panther. The skin of 

 a hybrid between a lion and panther, born at Kolhapur, is figured in 

 Volume XXII of the Journal. 



3. Melanism. 



It is generally accepted that the black panther is not a separate speciets 

 but a lusus natures, a view supported by the fact that litters have frequent- 

 ly been observed containing both black and fulvous cubs. It is, however, 

 curious that melanism in the panther does not occur in Africa, although 

 the specieis appears to be the same as the Indian one. Black jaguars are 

 found in South America. Moreover, melanism has been proved to be 

 hereditary, but this is only to be expected of this as of many other trans- 

 mitted characteristics. In the Journal Vol. XVI, Colonel Ferris records 



