ORDER CARNASSIER, 461 



species than that secondly indicated by the Arabians : it is 

 true, they are silent on the subject of its being employed in 

 hunting, but this is very natural ; if, as Eldemiri informs 

 us, the first person who so employed them was Chalib, son 

 of Wail. 



As to the word Leopardus, its usage is much more recent, 

 and there is no proof that it indicated a particular species. 

 It is met with only in the authors of the fourth age, and 

 was introduced by the fable of the intercourse between the 

 Lioness and the Pardalis, and by degrees was applied to the 

 Pardalis itself ; for, when Vopiscus says, that Probus, when 

 on occasion of the German triumph, he exhibited one hun- 

 dred Leopards from Lybia, and one hundred from Syria, he 

 could not, doubtless, have meant to say, that they were 

 the produce of such an unnatural intercourse. 



Thus abstracting for a moment the Lynx, the Greeks 

 and Romans appear to have known but two species of 

 these spotted animals, notwithstanding the opportunities, 

 particularly of the latter, of becoming acquainted with 

 them. 



We know at present of Africa but the two species of 

 the ancients, the Panther and Leopard, ordinarily under- 

 stood, and the Hunting Leopard, (Felis jubata.) The Leo- 

 pard of modern naturalists, according to our latest re- 

 searches, comes only from the parts of India the least 

 known by the ancients. 



Thus far, in effect, the Baron, with his usual learning and 

 research : to which we shall subjoin a few observations. 



Pliny tells us, that in his time the words Variae and Pardi 

 were applied to all this family ; the former to distinguish 

 the females, and the latter the males: and in a previous 

 passage he observes, that these and the Tiger are almost 

 the only spotted or striped beasts, the rest being uniform 

 in colour, though it varies in the different species. Our 

 author has noticed Pliny's observations, but it may be as 



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