96 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
rows of spots disposed along the sides of the body ; and 
Temminck, rejecting these characters as unimportant, 
has lately fixed upon the comparative length of the tail 
as affording the only sure means of discrimination. In 
this uncertainty the question remains for the present : 
but there can be no doubt of the complete distinction 
between both the animals involved in it and that which 
we have here figured, the mistaken Panther of BufFon, 
the Jaguar of Brasil, and Felis Onga of systematic 
writers. It may not, however, be useless to observe 
that of the figures given by Buffon as Panthers and 
Jaguars, that which is entitled the male Panther is in 
all probability a Leopard ; the female is unquestionably 
a Jaguar ; the Jaguars, both of the original work and of 
the Supplement, are either Ocelots or Chatis ; and that 
which purports to be the Jaguar or Leopard, although 
probably intended for a Chetah, is not clearly referable 
by its form and markings to any known species. 
The differences between the Leopard of the Old 
Continent and the Jaguar of the New were well known 
to Linnaeus, who has indicated them with his usual 
precision in the specific characters and accompanying 
descriptions given in his Systema. But later naturalists 
appear to have passed them over, until M. Geoff roy again 
recognised them, with the assistance of M. D'Azara, 
about the commencement of the present century, in the 
animals of the Paris Menagerie. Since this period 
they have been verified upon so large a number of 
living specimens, and upon so many thousands of skins, 
that there can be no doubt either of the permanence of 
the characters or of their importance as discriminating 
marks. 
The form of the Jaguar is much more robust, and 
even to a certain extent more clumsy, than that of the 
Leopard. When full grown he is also far superior in 
