16 Winter Fauna of Mount Marcy, 



panther. In the love of locality the panther shows a simi- 

 larity to the common cat — Felis domestica — and leads us 

 to surmise whether the strange affection which the latter 

 creature exhibits for home rather than an individual, is 

 not the great, unextinguished wild trait of its character. 

 Indications of the panther were also met with near Lake 

 Tear-of-the-Clouds, and other guides reported tracks seen 

 near the Boreas. Where the exact habitation of this par- 

 ticular panther was we were unable to determine. Our 

 advent must have annoyed him, for his trail was seen no 

 more. Whether in the dark recesses among the rocks it 

 found a home, or in some sunny glade with southern ex- 

 posure, all sheltered from chilly northern gales with dense 

 evergreens, we do not know. 



IText in importance to the panther in the list of species 

 the trails of which were observed, is the gray o*r Canada 

 lynx, the peeshoo or loup-cervier of the Indians — Lyncus 

 horealis of De Kay, Felis canadensis of Eichardson. Its 

 large, bold footprints were observed on the southern slopes 

 of Mount Marcy, and in the vicinity of little Lake Tear. 

 Like the panther, it was also rabbit hunting, its footprints 

 being visible superimposed upon those of its game, in the 

 little paths which they had beaten in the snow\ This large 

 and apparently powerful animal, by some woodmen erron- 

 eously called cat-a-mount, owes its imposing appearance 

 to its heavy, dense covering of fur; and when deprived 

 of its skin is so much reduced in size as to seem almost 

 like another animal, the body looking much smaller, 

 though the limbs and paws maintain the aspect of great 

 strength. It is also entirely carnivorous, yet it is said 

 by some to be good eating, its flesh resembling that 

 of the rabbit. The flesh of any animal so purely carni- 

 vorous, cannot, however, be considered fit food for man. 

 Its usual residence is in the dense lowland swamps, and its 

 presence at the altitude of over four thousand three hundred 

 feet in the gorges of the mountains indicates that it is not 



