THE BLACK PANTHER 



THE BLACK PANTHER 



After weighing the evidence pro and con the 

 theory of the black panther being a distinct 

 species, I am of opinion that there is no reason- 

 able doubt that it is but an accidental variety of 

 the common panther. Just as albino and melanoid 

 freaks of nature are by no means uncommon 

 amongst birds of many different species, so I have 

 every reason to believe that the black panther 

 is only an occasional melanoid variety. Apart 

 from the fact that there is no structural difference 

 between the two, we know that in the same litters 

 both varieties have been represented ; and just 

 as the common blackbird, for example, has an 

 occasional inclination to albinism, so has the 

 common panther a still more frequent tendency 

 to melanism. 



Black panthers are more common in Java than 

 they are in any other country ; but there, on the 

 other hand, panther skins are very frequently of 

 such various intermediate hues as to strengthen 

 my contention. 



I have but once seen a wild black panther, and 

 that was on the Travancore hills in 1896. I was 

 staying with a cousin resident there on an estate 

 situated in a deep valley, upon the high hills above 

 which we could sometimes with the naked eye 

 and at others not without a telescope see the 

 fine wild goat, misnamed the Neilgherry (or 

 Nilgiri) ibex, nearly every day. 



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