CAT KIND. 429 



size, fierceness, and beauty. It is distinguished, 

 however, by one obvious and leading character, 

 that of being spotted, not streaked ; for in this 

 particular the tiger differs from the panther, the 

 leopard, and almost all the inferior ranks of this 

 mischievous family. 



This animal, which M. Buffon calls simply the 

 Panther, Linngeus the Pard, Gesner the Pardalis, 

 and the modern Latins the Leopardus ; this ani- 

 mal, I say, which goes by too many names, and 

 which the English have indiscriminately called by 

 the name of the Panther or the Leopard, may be 

 considered as the largest of the kind, and is spot- 

 ted in a manner somewhat different from those 

 that are smaller. As those spots, however, make 

 the principal difference between it and the lesser 

 animals, which it otherwise resembles in shape, 

 size, disposition, and beauty, 1 will first show 

 these slight distinctions, and mention the names 

 each animal has received in consequence thereof, 

 and then proceed to give their history together, 

 still marking any peculiarity observable in one 

 of the species which is not found in the rest. 



Next to the great panther, already mentioned, 

 is the animal which M. Buffon calls the Leopard, 

 a name which he acknowledges to be given arbi- 

 trarily, for the sake of distinction. Other natu- 

 ralists have not much attended to the slight dif- 

 ferences between this and the great panther, nor 

 have they considered its discriminations as suffi- 

 cient to entitle it to another name. It has hither- 

 to, therefore, gone under the name of the Leo- 

 pard, or Panther of Senegal, where it is chiefly 



