47 



Felis oregonensis hippolestes (Merriam). Northeastern 



Panther. 



In early times, the Panther was probably as numerous here 

 as it was anywhere within its range ; the vast herds of deer at 

 that time forming a never-failing supply of food for this great 

 cat. 



De Kay 5 states, p. 48 : ' The Cougar or Painter (a corrup- 

 tion 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 Co., not more than twenty-five 

 miles from New York.' The Panther has long since been 

 extirpated in Westchester Co. 



Dr. Merriam 9 , writing of their occurrence in the Adirondack 

 region, in 1882, says (Vol. I, p. 30) : 'A few still remain, and 

 some years may yet elapse before the last panther disappears 

 from the dense evergreen swamps and high rocky ledges of 

 this wilderness.' The last Panther killed in the State, of 

 which I find a record, was taken in the Town of Day, Sara- 

 toga County, Jan. 6, 1890, by A. P. Flansburgh (Miller 10 , p. 

 338). 



Lynx ruffus (Gueldenstaedt). Wildcat. Bay Lynx. 



The Wildcat was formerly a very abundant inhabitant of 

 this district. A steep, rocky bluff on the Tuckahoe road in 

 the town of Yonkers is still known as the ' Cat Rocks,' and 

 received its name from the numbers of these animals which 

 formerly resorted to it. (Bolton 4 , p. 490.) 



Van der Donck assures us ' these animals had skins resem- 

 bling that of a lioness and not unlike them in form, with the 

 exception of short tails like a rabbit or hare.' Dr. Mearns 7 

 (p. 351) states that in the early seventies, Wildcats, by their 

 depredations, caused so much loss to the residents of Putnam 

 Co. (adjoining Westchester on the North) that bounties were 



