XI. SUPERSTITIONS. 



THERE has been a marked tendency with the 

 latest generation of naturaHsts to belittle the 

 entire race of felis cougitar. Dr. Merriam, 

 great man that he is, commenced it, and Colonel 

 Roosevelt, by his article in "Scribner's Alagazine" in 

 1901, fired the final gun. W. H. Hudson is the only 

 naturalist who has spoken well of the species. It is 

 the "style'' to call the panther a coward, like has been 

 done with the African lion. W'hy? Because he will 

 not attack men. The African lion is said to charge 

 when wounded, but the panther takes his medicine 

 and dies like a gentleman. Dr. jMerriam was the first 

 to give popularity to the statement that there is no 

 such thing as a panther cry, that it is all indigestion, 

 imagination, superstitition on the part of the hunters, 

 though in a letter to the author, dated [March 2-J, 1914, 

 this famous naturalist states that he referred solely 

 to the panther of the Adirondacks. It may be pos- 

 sible that the Adirondack panther was a silent animal, 

 but his relative in Pennsylvania was just the contrary. 

 If, after the testimony of fifty hunters and old-timers 

 whom the writer of this article has questioned on the 

 subject are doubted, the following letter from Dr. 

 J. T. Rothrock, founder of the Forestry Commission 

 of Pennsylvania, and a scientist of world-wide Repu- 

 tation, should set the matter at rest for all time : 



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