THE BLACK PANTHER. 101 



THE BLACK PANTHER. 



IN THE COLLECTION OF MR. WOMBWELL. 



In a former part of this work (see p. 61), we entered upon a description of the black leopard, an 

 inmate of the same collection as the present sketch, and at p. 87 we described the common panther as 

 it is generally exhibited in the menageries of this country. Having there given in detail the charac- 

 ter, general habits, and natural qualities of those animals, it merely remains for us to enlarge upon 

 some further particulars, which our subsequent researches may have acquired, and which may tend 

 to throw additional light on the natural history of this very interesting portion of the animal kingdom. 



In regard to the animal now under our immediate consideration, various opinions have been 

 hazarded respecting it ; whilst some have affirmed that it is a distinct species, others have adopted 

 a contrary opinion, and have declared that not only the black leopard, but also the black panther, are 

 the immediate offspring of the common species, and that the difference of their colour proceeds from 

 one of those freaks of Nature in which she sometimes indulges throughout the whole extent of the 

 animal tribes. Any attempt to solve the difficulty of this question would carry us far beyond our 

 present limits ; we cannot, however, refrain expressing our opinion, that the truth is on the side of the 

 latter hypothesis. We have instances, particularly in the sheep-tribe, of an individual being born al- 

 most black, when both the parents are of the usual natural colour ; and another very strong circumstance 

 in favour of the black colour of the panther being a lusus natures, is, that a male and female of the same 

 colour have never been found together, and that in those cases where a black leopard or panther has 

 been discovered, it has been in association with the common kind, and not forming a distinct family, 

 as would be the case were it a separate species. Pennant declares the black panther to be so very 

 rare, that he cannot consider it as a distinct species ; and the argument is so far plausible, when he 

 asks, how it should happen that a species of an animal should be so very scarce, which possesses in an 

 equal degree all the power and opportunities for propagating its species with which the individuals of 

 the common kind are endowed. It must also be observed, that the black panther was unknown to 

 the ancients ; and when it is considered that the panther was an animal in high request with them, 

 the inference must be drawn, that were the black panther a species distinct of itself, it would 

 undoubtedly have been introduced into some of the grand exhibitions which the ancients were in 

 the habit of making on some of their celebrated feasts. We are informed, that on one of these 

 occasions, Scaurus exhibited one hundred and fifty panthers ; Pompey the Great four hundred and 

 ten, and Augustus four hundred and twenty; and yet no mention whatever is made of any of these 

 animals being black. It is probable that the ancients thinned the coasts of Mauritania of these 

 animals ; but as the black leopard and black panther are only to be met with in the interior of Africa, 

 it may be adduced as some reason for them not forming any part in the pageants of the Romans, that 

 they had not yet penetrated into the country where that particular species was domesticated. This is, 

 however, a question for future naturalists to solve ; but there are difficulties in the way of its solution, 

 which present an almost insuperable obstacle to a decisive result. 



In speaking of the panther it may be necessary to remark, that in reading the ancient authors we 

 must not confound the panther with the panthera. The latter is the animal now under our considera- 

 tion ; whereas the panther of the scholiast of Homer and other authors, is a kind of timid wolf, which 



