CHAPTER IV. 



PANTHERS AND LEOPARDS. 



ritE COUGAR OR AMERICAN TANTHKR — THE JAGUAR— ITS DE3TRUCTIVENESS — A TAME JAGUAR — 

 THE AFRICAN I.EOI'ARD — THE ASIATIC LEOI'ARU OR PANTHER — THE JAPANESE PANTHER— 

 THE BLACK PANTHER — 



ET US pass from the Old World to the New, from the havoc and 

 splendor of the East to the forest of America. We owe an 

 apolo,^y to the animal we are now to describe for not placing 

 him next the lion in our series of Carnivora. Many naturalists place him 

 in a sub-genus, for the small, maneless head, the slender body, the ab- 

 sence of stripes or spots, and the round eyeball, are characteristics 

 marked enough to justify a separate division. 



THE AMERICAN PANTHER. 



The Cougar or Puma, Fclis concolor (Plate IX), bears many names; 

 the Guarani Indians call it Guazara, the Chilians Popi, the Mexicans 

 Mitzli ; our hunters and frontiersmen style it the Panther, or more ver- 

 nacularly the Painter. It has the general appearance of a lioness, and 

 attains the length of about four feet and a half on the average. It 

 inhabits Paraguay, Brnzil, Guiana, Mexico, and the United States, and is 

 found even in Canada. 



The thick, short, and soft fur appears somewhat richer on the belly 

 than on the back, and is of a very dark fawn-color, because the hairs are 

 tipped with black. There is some difference of color between the natives 

 of different regions, those from South America being lighter than those 

 from the United States. The cougar generally prefers thick woods to 

 the open fields, but he is found constantly on the Pampas of I'ucnos 

 Ayres. His mode of ascending trees differs from that of the jaguar — 



