7 



deep peat beds, were contemporaneous with our aboriginal Red 

 men, is a point for paleontologists to determine, if they can. 



Confining ourselves now, as far as may be, to the historical 

 (rather than to the descriptive) features of this general subject, 

 we will follow with some account of some of the mammals now or 

 formerly found in a wild state in Connecticut. 



Beginning with the four species of bats (of the genus Ves- 

 pertilio) I know of no reason why they should not be present with 

 us to-day. They are of no historical consequence. The red (or 

 New York), and the little brown species, are most common 

 with us. 



The same remark is applicable to the four species of shrew- 

 mice of the genus Sorex ; the one common species of mole of the 

 genus Scalops ; and the two species of star-nosed mole of the 

 genus Condylura ; in all three genera and four species. 



Coming to the cat family, we may say that one (and probably 

 two) of our three species have become extinct. The largest of 

 these was called by some of our ancestors the "catamount," by 

 others, the "panther." Both names are old-world titles, the one 

 meaning the European wildcat, the other (at least originally) the 

 leopard. Hence it would be more accurate to designate our ani- 

 mals (as the zoologists do) by the Indian name of puma, or cougar, 

 which is also from the Indian. The puma, or panther, preyed 

 upon the deer of our forests, as it still does upon the deer of the 

 Adirondack region. Scientifically speaking, this animal is Felis 

 concolor (or evenly-colored cat), but by dwellers in the backwoods 

 of Maine it is sometimes called "lucifer" ; a word which in this 

 case means neither "light-bearer," "son of the morning," nor 

 " Satan," but deer-wolf ; being a corruption of the French loup- 

 cervier, and so called because of its habit of capturing and devour- 

 ing deer. In this sense the word lucifer is not defined in any 

 dictionary with which I am acquainted. 



As an inhabitant of Connecticut this animal is probably 

 extinct, although it may occasionally stray within our borders 

 from New York. But panthers {pumas) were once so numerous 

 and destructive here that the legislature, in 1694, provided for the 

 payment of a bounty of twenty shillings per head for each one 

 killed. 



A writer from Hartford to the New London Gazette, under 

 date of February 27, 1767, says : "One night last week a panther 

 having killed nine sheep in a yard at Windsor, the owner of the 

 sheep, one Mr. Phelps, the next morning followed the panther by 

 his track into a thicket about half a mile from his house, and shot 

 him. He was brought to this town (Hartford) and the bounty of 

 five pounds allowed by law was paid for his head." 



