IV. HABITS. 



IT is unfortunate that when the Pennsylvania Hon 

 was prevalent no local naturalists made an at- 

 tempt to study the habits of the noble animal. Mr. 

 S. X. Rlioads, in his "Mammals of Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey,' gives us the most complete account, but it 

 was written years after the animal's disappearance and 

 mostly from hearsay evidence. In the first place, the 

 panther of Pennsylvania was not "unnecessarily 

 cruel'." It fed mostly on decrepit and wounded deer 

 and elk, sickly game birds and rabbits, also on mice, 

 rats, bugs, worms and berries. It was also a scavenger, 

 eating animals which had died after receiving wounds 

 from hunters, and those which had succumbed from 

 natural causes. In a forest it was a decidedly benefi- 

 cial element. It never killed more than it could eat 

 under any circumstances. There is no authentic case 

 of the Pennsylvania lion having attacked human beings 

 even when wounded. There is a story prevalent in 

 Lycoming County of a doctor having been eaten by a 

 panther about 1840 ; later researches prove that he was 

 lost in the snow and died of exposure. 'Wolves, pan- 

 thers and hawks picked his carcass, not knowing 

 enough to respect a human corpse, but that was the 

 very worst. D. S. Maynard, in his "Historical View 

 of Clinton County," published in 1874, tells of an occa- 

 sion when the workmen on the State Road between 

 Renovo and Germania found the bones of a man "who 



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