286 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. XL 



forty feet. In this instance there were three preliminary springs, and 

 the Panther struck his deer on the fourth. The longest leap measured 

 by Mr. Sheppard was one of sixty feet, but here the Panther jumped 

 from a ledge of rock about twenty feet above the level upon which the 

 deer was standing. He struck it with such force as to knock it nearly 

 a rod further off." (/. c., pp. 31-32.) 



In spite of the hair-raising stories of the ferocity of these animals, 

 I am satisfied that Panthers are very much afraid of man and, judging 

 from my experience, unless badly wounded, will rarely or never attempt 

 to attack him. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt says,* "There are many 

 contradictions in its character. Like the American Wolf it is certainly 

 very much afraid of man ; yet it habitually follows the trail of the hunter 

 or solitary traveller, dogging his footsteps, itself always unseen. I 

 have had this happen to me personally. When hungry it will seize 

 and carry off any dog; yet it will sometimes go up a tree when pursued 

 even by a single small dog wholly unable to do it the least harm. It is 

 small wonder that the average frontier settler should grow to regard, 

 almost with superstition, the great furtive cat which he never sees but 

 of whose presence he is ever aware." 



The time of breeding seems to be somewhat irregular; the period 

 of gestation is about 90 days, but in Florida I have seen young less than 

 three months old in December, and they are often found mating in 

 February and early in March. The young are usually two in number, 

 sometimes one and rarely three or four. The young Florida Panther is 

 tawny brown in color, marked with numerous, large, irregular, brownish 

 black spots ; those of the northern form are lighter in color but the spot- 

 ting is about the same. The cry of the cub resembles the screech of a 

 parrot, but it often utters a soft whistle. 



We often read of the ''scream of a panther, " but I have never heard 

 what I could be certain was the cry of an adult animal of this species. 

 Several of my Indian friends inform me, however, that they do "scream " 

 and also occasionally yowl like a House Cat, but much louder. Hollister 

 describes the cry of the Louisiana Panther as "a long drawn out, 

 shrill trill, weird and startling. It commences low on the scale, grad- 

 ually ascends, increasing in volume, and then lowers at the end."f 



Genus LYNX Kerr. 



Lynx Kerr, Anim. Kingd., I, 1792, p. 155. Type Lynx vulgaris Kerr. 



Cranial characters as in Felis; tail short; ears tufted; body more 



or less spotted; only two premolars in each side of upper jaw, instead 



* Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, 1908, p. 22. 

 t Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIV, 1911, p. 177. 



