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735 



which can be entitled to the name of scientific ; and 

 perhaps two may be found, one geographically a 

 leopard, and the other a panther, which more nearly 

 resemble each other than the other two do which 

 come from the same part of the globe, and are geo- 

 graphically called by the same name. There is, 

 however, nothing to guide us but the geographical 

 distinction : and so, in the present state of our know- 

 ledge, we have no alternative. 



We may, however, mention the probability that 

 the leopard of the ancients was not the leopard of 

 modern times ; for that animal is obtained chiefly or 

 exclusively from the Eastern Archipelago, with which 

 the ancients had little or no intercourse, Taprobanc, 

 or Ceylon, being the south-eastern limit of even their 

 conjectural geography ; and Ophir, being in Africa, 

 where gold is still found for exportation, and not in 

 India, where there are not, and never were, any 

 mines of that metal. 



The ancient name leads us at once and clearly to 

 the leopard of the ancients. It was the maned hunt- 

 ing leopard (Fells jubata) of the systems, which has 

 the spots of the panther, and, rudimentally at least, 

 the mane of the lion ; and it is still to be found in 

 those countries with which the ancients were ac- 

 quainted, as are also the lion and the panther, or 

 pard, between which it was supposed to be a hy- 

 brid ; and though the fact of its originally being so 

 is purely hypothetical, it is not impossible. 



A figure of a Leopard is given in the plate, " CATS," 

 from which the character find markings will be more 

 readily understood than from verbal description. The 

 spots are generally pretty uniform, rather small and 

 close, and the skin is beautiful. The animal is re- 

 markably lithe and flexible in all its motions, and as 

 it is considerably less than either the lion or the 

 tiger, it is much more feeble and more mild in its ex- 

 pression ; but, as it lives upon smaller prey, it is more 

 frequently on the hunt, and perhaps kills a greater 

 number of animals than its more powerful congeners. 

 It is said to be found only, or chiefly, in the larger 

 islands of the Oriental Archipelago, and probably in 

 the Eastern Peninsula, It is a very symmetrical animal, 

 and as its expression partakes as much of wildness as 

 of fierceness, it is among the most handsome in the 

 whole genus. It is described as being subject to very 

 considerable variations, both in the ground colour and 

 in the spots, being sometimes bright yellow with the 

 spots well defined, and at other times nearly black. 

 The larger spots on the flanks and sides are often 

 slightly ocellated, or have the middle paler, but they 

 never have so much of that character, neither are they 

 so large as the spots on the jaguar of South America, 

 which has sometimes been shown and even described 

 both as a leopard and as a panther. 



THE PANTHER (Fells Pardalls.) From what has 

 been already said, it would be occupying space to 

 very little purpose to enter into any detailed account 

 of this animal as a species. 



It is rather larger in size, and more ferocious in 

 manner, than the leopard of the Eastern Isles ; but, 

 like that, it is subject to very considerable varieties of 

 colour. It is found in central and northern Africa, 

 and also in the south-west of Asia. 



The spots upon the panther are described as bein_>- 

 larger than those upon the leopard, and as being 

 more regularly arranged in lines ; and if this be the 

 case, it would lead us to infer, that in proportion as 

 the animals of this genus approach nearer to that 



great strength, which must be considered as the per- 

 fection of the type, their colours have a greater 

 tendency to be uniform. The young lion has rudi- 

 mental markings of the stripes of the tiger; the 

 panther has the spots in rows, as if they were inter- 

 rupted stripes, only they are longitudinal ; and the 

 leopard of the east has them alternating, so that they 

 do not range in rows either way, and they are much 

 smaller and more numerous. 



The changes of colour which we trace in these 

 animals, as modified by differences of climate, and of 

 character thereby produced in their several localities, 

 agree perfectly well with what we may observe in those 

 animals which have been longest under a state of domes- 

 tication by man, and which we may therefore consider 

 as being most diverted from their natural type by arti- 

 ficial treatment. In them, as in the others, the most 

 perceptible external deviation from the uniformity of 

 nature, is the departure from the original colour ; and 

 where wild animals are placed in climates so different 

 from each other as the Oriental Archipelago and 

 Northern Africa, we may naturally look for consider- 

 able differences of colour among them. 



Both the leopard and the panther have the pupil 

 of the eye contracting to a circle, as in the lion, and 

 not to an ovular one, as in the tiger. This points 

 them out as being more inhabitants of dry, if not 

 open places, than of the damp and close jungles. 

 They are both long animals in proportion to their 

 height. The length of the full-grown panther is 

 about three feet and a half, of which the head oc- 

 cupies about eight inches. The tail is about two feet 

 and a half in length. The height of the shoulder is 

 about one foot ten. It is only particular specimens, 

 however, which reach these dimensions. The spots 

 on the body of the panther are not circular, or 

 ocellated, but formed into a sort of cinquefoils, as if 

 five spots ran into each other ; while those upon the 

 leopard, when they appear to be confluent, have more 

 a quatrefoil appearance, and are usually less or more 

 pale in the centre. The upper part of the tail in the 

 panther is black, annulated with white ; the under 

 parts of the body, and the insides of the thighs are 

 white, with black markings. Among furriers, by 

 whom the skin is much valued, the panther is some- 

 times called the African tiger. It is probable that, 

 like the lion, this animal was much more generally 

 distributed in ancient times than it is now, and was 

 found in all the west of Asia, as far to the north as 

 the mountains of Armenia, and their continuation 

 eastward ; and that it even reached to the confines of 

 those places which are now inhabited by the leopard 

 of the moderns, if indeed the two are not the same 

 identical species, a portion of which is left at each 

 end of its former locality, while it has become extinct, 

 or so much rarer, as to be but seldom seen in the 

 intermediate part. 



If we could implicitly depend upon the accounts 

 which we have of the relative abundance of these 

 animals at different periods of history, which, from 

 what has taken place in modern times, cannot, we 

 fear, be the case, we should be in possession of a most 

 important element in the progressive natural history 

 of the globe. Thus much at least we can infer, and 

 it is highly important that, if man for a long succession 

 of years so cultivates the earth as to change it very 

 much from what it was in a state of nature, and then 

 abandons it, owing to any cause, it does not return to 

 the natural exuberance of its fertility, but passes into 



