Sir, 



[ 62 ] 



ON THE PANTHER. 



To the Editor of the Zoological Magazine. 



Perhaps you can find room in your next Number, or in the 

 Notices to Correspondents, to give me some light on the fol- 

 lowing subject. 



In Pennant, Buffon, and all the old books of natural hi- 

 story, the panther is universally described as a beast larger 

 than the leopard, and differing from him by having a single 

 spot in the centre of the rings on his body, while the leopard 

 has only the rings. Now in the Zoological Gardens there 

 is a beast which they call the panther, larger indeed than the 

 leopard, but having neither rings, nor rings with central 

 spots, but only single spots like the chetah. To complete 

 this riddle, the author of the " Tower Menagerie" asserts 

 that there is no such existing beast as the panther. If you 

 can solve this Gordian knot, you will greatly oblige 



Felis. 



Though we are not vain enough to undertake to solve a 

 Gordian knot, we gladly give our correspondent " Felis " 

 such information as we possess on the subject. We must ob- 

 serve that in the present state of knowledge relative to these 

 two species, very little dependence can be placed on charac- 

 ters drawn from the markings and spots on the skin. The 

 single spot in the middle of the ring [ocellus pupillatus) at- 

 tributed to the panther by Buffon, is an error arising from 

 his having been ignorant of the country from which was 

 derived the large spotted Felis, figured as the female panther 

 at pi. xii. vol. ix. of the quarto edition of his Works. This 

 animal is the American Jaguar. 



Our correspondent would be equally mistaken in sup- 

 posing the fine single- spotted Felis ticketed ' Panther ' in the 

 Zoological Gardens, to be the type of that species. It is 

 either a variety merely, or a species distinct from both the 

 leopard and panther. But the determination of this question 

 will require more minute investigation than is practicable 

 on the living animal. 



According to the investigation of Temminck, the panther 

 (Felis Pardus) is larger than the leopard, and its tail equals 

 in length the body and head, and contains twenty-eight ver- 

 tebrae ; while in the leopard, the tail is equal in length to the 

 trunk only, and contains twenty-two vertebrae. Both the 

 species have the spots on the sides of the body arranged in 

 rings, which are broader in the leopard than in the panther. 



