1(5 CAENIVOEOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



resembles the Jaguar, it is always strongly to be suspected that the type whence the observations ar e 

 taken is an American animal. If the contrary be clearly established, and the animal be found to 

 have large round or oval open marks of black, with a central spot on the sides and back, and a tail 

 lono-er than from its insertion to the ground, it may be concluded that it is the real Panther. 



Lastly, that indefatigable investigator, CUVIEB, says he was long in doubt whether the 

 Panther and Leopard were distinct : but a comparison of a great number of skins, as well as 

 observations on the numerous animals sent to the French Museum, have satisfied him that they 

 are different ; and he accordingly describes the Panther as having six or seven rows of rose-like 

 spots in transverse lines, the tail longer and the head larger than the Jaguar, and the ground-colour 

 of the fur paler. The Leopard he describes as a little less than the Panther, though with the same 

 proportions ; but the spots, as much more numerous, forming ten transverse lines. 



The opinion of CUVIER is certainly deserving of the greatest attention ; but it may be 

 observed that his enumeration of the six or seven rows of spots in the Panther, and of ten in the 

 Leopard, is not so certainly intelligible as might be desired, when it is considered that the spots or 

 marks in question have really little or no parallelism. Notwithstanding, therefore, this respectable 

 authority, it seems very probable that the Panther and Leopard are one and the same species, 

 which branches into two varieties, the Asiatic and the African ; the former of which is brighter 

 in colour, and probably something larger than the latter ; and that the females of both are paler 

 and less than the other sex. CICERO, in his letters to ATTICUS, speaks of the Panther of Africa, 

 and the Asiatic Panther ; as if they were different. 



The ancient naturalists were not a whit more successful in distinguishing these two 

 quadrupeds, than the moderns, notwithstanding the opportunities which they possessed of 

 inspecting- so many. MR. GRIFFITH comments on SHAW, LICHTENSTEIN, and CUVIER ; so did 

 CICERO and PLINY, on ARISTOTLE. Hence their Panthcra, Pardus, and the Leopardus of the 

 later ages of Rome (the last of which plainly indicates their supposition that a Lion or Lioness 

 had been concerned in the generation of this spotted animal.) 



It is surprising to reflect on the great number of Panthers, which in those later ages of Rome, 

 were brought from the deserts of Africa for their public shows. SCAURUS exhibited an hundred 

 and fifty of them at one time ; POMPEY, four hundred and ten ; and AUGUSTUS, four hundred 

 and twenty ! They probably thinned the province of Mauritania almost to extirpation ; which 

 may account for the superior abundance of these quadrupeds, as well as of Lions, at present, in 

 Guinea, and the more southern parts of Africa. 



It would appear, that after all that has been accomplished by the spot and row-counting 

 philosophers, the distinction between Panthers and Leopards is by no means made out ; and we 

 take it, that whenever Nature means to mark a distinction of this sort, she always does it with a 

 firmer hand, and more decisive line. 



