70 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
upon the Quadrupeds of North America, cautions the reader 
not to credit the legends of the vulgar in regard to the ferocity 
of this animal, and its propensity to attack man, and then goes 
on to picture midnight encounters and hair-breadth escapes 
almost as thrilling as the story above quoted. Oh, the incon- 
sistency of man! It is now so well known that the panther is 
one of the most cowardly of beasts, never attacking man unless 
wounded and cornered, that it is unnecessary to do more than 
contradict the popular impression to the contrary. 
2d. Concerning the method of capturing its prey. 
It is commonly and widely believed, and boldly asserted in 
print, that the panther lurks in ambush for its prey; that it 
lies in wait beside the runways of the wary deer, hidden by 
some rock or thicket, or crouching upon an overhanging limb, 
and falls, like a thunderbolt from heaven, upon the back of its 
hapless and unsuspecting victim. Such romances, however 
gratifying to the narrator, and entertaining to the community, 
are without foundation in fact. * * * 
3d. Concerning the screams of the panther. 
Who has not heard of the piercing cries and startling screams 
of the panther? Who has listened, about the evening camp- 
fire, to the tales of hunters and woodsmen, but has felt his 
blood run cold, and his hat tighten on his head, as the earnest 
speaker, perhaps in a whisper, and uninterrupted save by the 
sputtering of the fire, told of the time when, alone in the soli- 
tudes of the deep forest, and at the dead of night, he was sud- 
denly awakened by a piercing scream that burst upon his weary 
ears. It seemed like the shriek of a woman in distress, or the 
pitiful wail of a lost child. Half asleep, quite bewildered, he 
starts to his feet to render assistance, when the glaring eye 
balls of a fierce cougar met his horrified gaze and acquainted 
him with the nature of his unwelcome guest! 
An attack of indigestion, the cry of a loon, or the screech of 
an owl, a piece phosphorescent wood and a very moderate im 
agination, are all that are necessary, in the way of material 
and connctions, to build up a thrilling tale of this description. 
Indeed, the writer once had a bitof personal experience in this 
line that is not yet forgotten. 
In conversing with honest hunters upon this point, it has 
been my uniform experience to find that those who have had 
most to do with panthers are most skeptical in regard to their 
cries. 
