432 ANIMALS OF THE 



loughby, there will be an animal of the panther 

 kind, very distinguishable from all the rest, left 

 without a name ; and if we recede from him, it 

 will serve to produce some confusion among all 

 the numerous class of readers and writers who 

 have taken him for their guide : however, as he 

 seems himself to have been an innovator, the 

 name of the lynx having been long adopted into 

 our language before, it was unnecessary to give 

 the animal that bore it another name, and to call 

 that creature an ounce which our old writers had 

 been accustomed to know by the Latin appella- 

 tion ; for this reason, therefore, we may safely 

 venture to take a name that has been long misap- 

 plied from the lynx, and restore it to the animal 

 in question. We will therefore call that animal 

 of the panther kind, which is less than the pan- 

 ther, and with a longer tail, the Ounce j and the 

 lynx may remain in possession of that name by 

 which it was known among all our old English 

 writers, as well as by all antiquity. 



The Ounce, or the Onza of Linnaeus, is much 

 less than the panther, being not at most above 

 three feet and a half long ; however, its hair is 

 much longer than that of the panther, and its tail 

 still more so. The panther of four or five feet 

 long has a tail but of two feet, or two feet and a 

 half. The ounce, which is but about three feet, 

 has a tail often longer than the rest of its body. 

 The colour of the ounce is also apparently diffe- 

 rent, being rather more inclining to a cream co- 

 lour, which is deeper on the back, and whiter to- 

 wards the belly. The hair on the back is an inch 



