CARNIVOROUS QUADRUPEDS. 17 



No. XIV. 



STUBBS, who had most likely paid sufficient attention to what the naturalists had previously 

 said on the subject and whom no naturalist has exceeded in accuracy of observation appears to 

 have here sketched out the differences, and the resemblances, between these two animals if two 

 they may be termed. It will be observed that the one which we esteem to be the LEOPARD the 

 nearer figure of the two is somewhat smaller than the other, and .that the dark spots on her body 

 are not clustered in roselets, or oilettes, as they have sometimes been called ; while on the body of 

 the PANTHER, they are, and indeed everywhere, excepting- on his head and fore-leg's. In short, 

 STUBBS'S delineation agrees best with the definition of CUVIER, whose discernment and 

 philosophical tact are by no means inferior to that indefatigability for which he is praised by 

 GRIFFITH. 



Of this Leopard and Panther, the actions and expression (although not the character their 

 noses and mouths being of longer and larger proportions) are very much those of the common 

 domestic Cat, when in a playful mood. Something there is of burlesque clumsiness in their play 

 resembling HERCULES with the distaff; and something of that assumed look which may be 

 observed among- Cats while frolicking with their young'. And these kindly and droll expressions 

 of countenance these " quips and cranks, and wanton wiles," are doubtless very well understood 

 among the carnivorous comedians, notwithstanding that to some of ourselves, they may not appear 

 to amount to much : yet the difference of these our engraved heads of a playful Leopard and 

 Panther, and the ocular expressions of such animals when raging 1 with hunger, or rendered angry 

 by opposition, is immense, and could not fail, if presented together, to be strikingly obvious to those 

 who are in the least studious of the physiognomical variations of the ferocious tribe. Let the 

 reader compare them with the threatening- LION and defying TIGER among the rocks, after the 

 same master, which we have numbered 19. 



Horse-play is proverbially unwelcome : Panther-play must be worse. We cannot associate 

 the idea of the endurance of it within reach of man. But where Cats and Kittens are occasionally 

 permitted in the parlour, there is comparative harmlessness. And who has not witnessed with 

 delight, among the rat-catching carnivora in their joyous moments, those spontaneous and electrical 

 kindlings of various and rapid fun, which must have made HERACLITUS laugh, could he have seen 

 them, and have been a lesson to LAVATER. 



