142 Wild Beasts 



others it appears that he hunts during the day nearly as 

 much as at night. In no instance is he an organic 

 machine. Far from it ; this prowling marauder is the fiercest 

 and most adventurous of wild beasts, astute to a degree, 

 capable of using every faculty to its fullest extent, well 

 able to take care of itself, and fatally skilful in compassing 

 the destruction of others ; a being in every way qualified 

 to design and execute its projects, to achieve all those 

 ends which courage and cunning enable it to attain, and 

 quite fit to meet the ordinary emergencies that may arise 

 during the perpetration of its acts of rapine and bloodshed. 

 The panther's cry — Gerard ("Journal des Chasseurs") 

 calls it a "scream" — is often heard upon Indian hillsides 

 when darkness begins to obscure the scene. Captain 

 Baldwin describes it as a harsh, measured coughing sound, 

 without much timbre or resonance, rather flat, in fact, and 

 not at all like the roar of that animal it most resembles, — 

 the American jaguar. Like most of the Fclidce, this 

 species commonly gives tongue upon leaving its lair, or, at 

 least, has been frequently reported as doing so. This is 

 not a point of much moment, but it is a matter of con- 

 siderable importance to the inhabitants of any village that 

 may lie in the neighborhood, whether that ominous voice 

 dies away in the forest, or appears to be approaching their 

 dwellings. When a panther takes to man-eating, Colonel 

 Pollok ("Sport in British Burmah ") and Captain James 

 Forsyth ("The Highlands of Central India") assert, "he 

 is far worse than a tiger." Certainly, no records of such 

 desperate ferocity exist in the case of any other creature of 

 the cat kind ; no other is reported to have taken like risks 



