l8 THE BIOLOGICAL REVIEW. 



there is a remarkable scarcity of published matter, and the tales 

 of hunters and early settlers, current everywhere half a century 

 ago, were, unfortunately, indefinite as to locality and date, and 

 generally unreliable. 



The advent or extinction of a species in any habitat is always 

 of scientific value, more especially such a large and formidable 

 animal as the Panther. Of course it is evident such an animal 

 must disappear with the clearing away of forests and the settle- 

 ment of the country. It is believed to be now extinct in the 

 States of Pennsylvania and New York, where formerly it was a 

 well-known resident species. It became extinct in the State of 

 Ohio about the beginning of this century ; it would appear the 

 last authentic record is 1805. 



It will be our endeavour to collect what we can of the meagre 

 and scattered information, documentary and oral, bearing on the 

 occurrence of the Panther in Ontario, and to edit and publish 

 what may be deemed worthy of record. 



So far we have been fortunate in securing valuable papers, 

 given in this number, from Messrs. Doel and Calcutt, and we 

 would again earnestly appeal to all who have any information 

 on this subject to communicate the same to us, so that it may 

 not be lost forever to the Natural History of our Province. 



THE PANTHER IN CANADA. 

 By the Rev. John Doel. 



Some time ago you requested me to write an account of the 

 mounted specimen of the American Panther (Fells concolor), 

 which I had at one time in my possession. 



When I was a boy going to school, about 1830, there was a 

 taxidermist in York (Toronto) by the name of Wood, who had a 

 very respectable collection of stuffed birds and animals. We 

 boys, whenever we got a dead bird or a squirrel, would take it 

 to him, and he rewarded us by showing us his museum. This 

 collection was afterwards purchased by Chas. Fothergill, at this 

 time Queen's Printer, residing in the town of York (Toronto) ; 

 after his death all of his collection was deposited, for safe 



