156 



THE LEOPARD, 



Felii ?eopardus.Y. CUVIER* 

 PLATE VIII. 



Lri Leopard, F. Cuvier, HistoireNaturelledes Mammi/lies. 

 The Figure in Griffith's Translation of Cuvier. 



WE have given a plate of the African Leopard, 

 from the Histoire Natiirelle des Mammiferes of Fre- 

 deric Cuvier ; but, under this, we propose to de- 

 scribe, as far as possible, the Panther, or Felis par- 

 dus of naturalists, and regret that we have been un- 

 able to procure either an authentic figure, or a spe- 

 cimen of an animal which we could reconcile to the 

 characters given under that name. We shall not at- 

 tempt to unravel the synonyms, a task of great diffi- 

 culty, and which would o :cupy much more space 

 than can be afforded in the present work. 



That there are two species confounded under the 

 names of Leopard and Panther, seems to have been 

 the opinion of most zoologists ; and the ancients, 

 who had more extensive opportunities of examining 

 them, though not with a view to their zoological 

 characters, invariably characterised them under two 

 uames. Our own opinion is, that there are at least 



