48 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



Color. The whole body liglit reddish grey, with oblong irregular blackisli brown spots. 

 According to Prof. Emmons, these spots mostly disappear at the first shedding of the hair. 

 Tail with four annulations of the same color, blackish at the tip ; beneath, light dusky brown. 

 Outside of the legs irregularly banded with grey and brownish, the latter predominating on 

 the fore legs. Space between the eyes, light brown. Ears black exteriorly, white within. 

 Eves large and black. A space on the middle portion of the upper lip, together with the 

 whiskers, white. Infra-orbital space and the chin soiled grey. 



Head and neck, 4 '5. Height of ears, 0-7. 



Body, 8'0. Ditto at foreshoulders, . . 4-8. 



Tail, 4-8. Girth round chest, 7-5. 



In this specimen, only the four lower incisors were developed. 



The difference in the length of the tail in this species is worthy of note ; amounting, in 

 individuals of nearly the same size, to several inches. In a specimen alluded to by Godman, 

 the head and body was four feet five inches, and the tail two feet four inches. Prof. Em- 

 mons gives a total length to one individual, of nine feet four inches. In a female, the tail 

 was one foot nine inches ; and in a male, two feet three inches. Whether this is a constant 

 sexual distinction, is not yet sufficiently determined. The largest individual of which we have 

 any account, is in the Museum at Utica. It was discovered on a small island on Lake Fourth, 

 Herkimer county, and killed by the hunter Wood, just after it had taken to the water. When 

 recently killed, it had a total length of eleven feet three inches. 



The Cougar or Painter, (a corruption of the word Panther,) is now rarely seen in the 

 southern parts of the State ; though the writer remembers, when a boy, the consternation 

 occasioned by the appearance of one of these animals in Westchester county, not more than 

 twenty-five miles from New- York. In the early settlement of this State, this animal was 

 believed to be a lion ; and we find in Vanderdonck's History of the New-Netherlands, the 

 following passage in relation to tliis subject : " Although the New-Netherlands lie in a fierce 

 " climate, and the country in winter seems rather cold, nevertheless lions are found there, 

 " but not by the christians, who have traversed the land without seeing one. It is only known 

 " to us by the skins of the females, which are sometimes brought in for sale by the natives. 

 " In reply to our inquiries, they say that the lions are found far to the southwest, fifteen to 

 " twenty days journey ; that they live in very high mountains, and that the males are too 

 " active and fierce to be taken." 



In this State, the Panther is most numerous in the rocky northern districts, and particu- 

 larly in the counties of Herkimer, Hamilton and St. LaAvrence. They are occasionally seen 

 among the Kaaterskill mountains ; and the specimen in the New- York Museum, which has 

 served as a basis for many marvellous legends, was obtained from this locality. It appears 

 rarely by daylight, unless hard pressed for food, but usually conceals itself behind fallen trees 

 or rocks until evening. It prefers for its usual retreat, ledges of rocks inaccessible to man, 

 which are known familiarly to the hunters under the name oi panther ledges. They wander. 



