THE BIOLOGICAL REVIEW. 27 



THE PANTHER IN ONTARIO. 

 By Wm. Brodie. 



From about 1840 to 1843 tales of the appearance and depre- 

 dations of a Catamount were current in the northern part of the 

 County of York. 



The animal, — for it was not said there was more than one — 

 it seemed, ranged over a wide area, from the central part of the 

 pine ridges of Whitchurch, then an unbroken forest, down 

 to certain cedar swamps in the Township of Markham, 

 and through the Townships of Uxbridge and Pickering to 

 Frenchman's Bay and the banks of the Rouge. 



It would seem that the animal did not remain very long in 

 any locality, for every month or so, stories of its screams being 

 heard, of its being seen running cattle at night, of its killing and 

 eating sheep, pigs and calves, were current at quite distant parts. 



The settlers at this time were quite familiar with bears, 

 wolves and lynx. These animals were frequently seen, shot 

 and trapped. I remember standing at the door of the old 

 homestead in Whitchurch, listening to the howling of a pack of 

 wolves. He was not much of a backwoods man who could not 

 diagnose the " signs " of these animals, but there was a unani- 

 mous agreement among settlers and hunters that the animal 

 which uttered these " blood curdling " screams, which killed 

 and eat sheep, pigs and young cattle, often dragging the 

 carcases long distances, was neither bear, nor wolf, nor lynx. 



At this time there resided on Lot 3, 4th Con. W T hitchurch, a 

 farmer and tanner named Andrew Brillinger. Andrew, as well 

 as being a farmer and a tanner, was a hunter and trapper from 

 boyhood, an unerring rifle shot, quite familiar with the woods 

 and the habits of all our native wild animals, having frequently 

 shot and trapped lynx. About midsummer, 1839 (?), Andrew 

 was hunting for a buck in a very dense cedar swamp, on the 

 rear of Lot 6, 3rd Con. Whitchurch, by the margin of old Simon 

 Teel's Lake, when he came suddenly face to face, at a very 

 short distance, with a beast which, to his dying day, he asserted 

 was a lion. He was so very much frightened that he dared not 

 fire, believing the lion would attack him in case it was only 



