FELIS CONCOT,OR. 



31 



pass over fallen trees and ragged ledges, or through dense swamps 

 and tangled thickets, till, if unobserved, within thirty or forty feet of his 

 intended victim. If he can now attain a slight elevation and a firm 

 footing he springs directly upon his prey, but if upon level ground 

 makes one or two preliminary leaps before striking it. The noise 

 thus made frightens the deer, who makes a sudden and desperate 

 effort to escape. But, if lying down, several seconds are necessary 

 to get under full headway, and the Panther follows so rapidly, in a 

 series of successive leaps, that it often succeeds in alighting upon the 

 back of its unhappy quarry. Its long claws are planted deep into 

 the quivering flesh, and its sharp teeth make quick work with the ill- 

 fated sufferer. If, however, the deer sees him in season, and can get 

 a good footing for a sudden move, it commonly escapes, and the Pan- 

 ther rarely follows it more than a few rods, for as soon as he finds 

 that the deer is gaining on him he at once gives up the chase. In 

 fact, a Panther rarely secures more than one out of every four or five 

 deer upon which he attempts to spring. Then, too, it not infrequent- 

 ly happens that he strikes a deer when it is under such headway that 

 it escapes; and when Panthers were more plenty here than they now 

 are it was no uncommon thing to shoot a deer bearing deep scars 

 upon its flanks — scars that were clearly made by the claws of this pow- 

 erful beast. The female is by far the better hunter and does not lose 

 so many deer as the male. 



The deer that furnish the most nutriment to our Panthers are gen- 

 erally under two years of age. This is not because this beast is afraid 

 to attack a full-grown animal, but because young deer are less wary, 

 and therefore more easily captured. 



The distance that a Panther can pass over in a single leap is almost 

 incredible. On level ground a single spring of twenty feet is by no 

 means uncommon, and on one occasion Mr. Sheppard measured a leap, 

 over snow, of nearly 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, 



