CHARACTERS OP THE PANTHER AND LEOPARD. 157 



knowledge, let us see what benefit we can derive from the ob- 

 servation o those whose names should be a guarantee from 

 error. 



Panth. Leop. 



M. Cuvier, Anat. Comp., states the number 



of the caudal vertebrae .... 24 — 



M. Temminck, Monogr. of Felis ... 28 22 



M. Lesson, Man. de Mammalogie . . 18 22 



As far as regards the panther, therefore, the results are 

 nugatory; and we have the choice of supposing, either that the 

 number of caudal vertebrae differ in different individuals, or that 

 different species of felis have been examined for the panther, or 

 that there are typographical errors in the published accounts. 

 I possess two skeletons of the panther, but the bones of both 

 were mixed by accident; and as the caudal vertebrae do not 

 correspond with any of the above numbers, it is probable they 

 suffered from the depredations of birds while exposed to dry. 



I may add to my characteristics of the panther and leopard, 

 that I think the head of the latter slightly more elongated, 

 the line of the face and cranium less arched, and the frontal 

 bones somewhat flatter, than in the former. 



M. Cuvier says, (Oss. Foss., torn. iv. p. 427,) " Le Felis 

 varia de Schreber, pi. 101. B. ne me paroit differer du leopar- 

 das que par une enlumenure trop rouge. " 



This figure differs so slightly from Schreber's, pi. 101, 

 which is Buffon's Felis leopardus, that I cannot but consider 

 them the same. If such be the case, Buffon, Schreber and 

 Cuvier entertain in common specific ideas with respect to the 

 leopard ; and as the figure of the animal so designated bears 

 a sufficiently close resemblance to the figure of the leopard 

 by Major Hamilton Smith, (< Animal Kingdom/) to a stuffed 

 specimen in the India House, and to a living specimen in the 

 Zoological Gardens, — and as M. Temminck, M. Lesson, and 

 the translators of the Regne Animal, agree in certain charac- 

 ters of the skin applicable to these figures and specimens, I 

 think we may admit the type of the leopard to be a large cat, 

 of a comparatively paleish tawny, with the rose rings much 

 broken into dots, but still preserving, more or less, the ring 

 form; and the panther is characterized by crowded rose 

 rings little broken; the ground-colour of a deeper hue, and 

 less of it visible. We may set aside length of tail, and tri- 

 fling variations in size. By the by, if M. Temminck's asser- 

 tion respecting the length of the panther's tail hold good, 

 there is not an animal in the Zoological Gardens apparently 

 entitled to that name. We readily recognise the lion, royal 

 tiger, and puma by their colours ; the jaguar especially by its 



