34 
MAMMALIA. 
times for weeks, before overtaking him, and could never get him 
were it not for the fact that he remains near the spot where he kills 
a deer till it is eaten. When the hunter has followed a Panther for 
days, and has, perhaps, nearly come up with him, a heavy snow-storm 
often sets in and obliterates all signs of the track. He is then obliged 
to make wide detours to ascertain in which direction the animal has 
gone. On these long and tiresome snow-shoe tramps he is of course 
obliged to sleep, without shelter, wherever night overtakes him. 
The heavy walking makes it impossible for him to carry many days’ 
rations, and when his provisions give out he must strike for some 
camp or settlement for a new supply — this of course consumes valu- 
able time and enables the Panther to get still farther away. When 
the beast is finally killed the event is celebrated by a feast, for Pan- 
ther meat is not only palatable, but is really very fine eating. 
Most mammals are larger at the north than at the south, but with 
the present species the reverse is true. Individuals from various 
parts of the south and southwest average considerably larger than 
those found in the Adirondacks. This is in obedience to the law, 
clearly defined by Mr. J. A. Allen, that : “ The maximum physical 
development of the individual is attained where the conditions of 
environment are most favorable to the life of the species.” * 
In the Adirondacks, it is an uncommonly large Panther that meas- 
sures eight feet from the end of its nose to the tip of its tail, and an 
unusually heavy one that weighs a hundred and fifty pounds. Still, 
on the 1 5 th of February, 1877, Mr. Verplanck Colvin, Superintend- 
ent of the Adirondack Survey, shot a male on Seventh Lake Moun- 
tain, in Hamilton County, that weighed about two hundred pounds. 
This is the heaviest Panther concerning which I have been able to 
procure trustworthy information. It was killed near a deer “ yard,” 
and the carcasses of two of its victims were found hard by. Hence 
it is fair to infer that he had been for some time lurking in this vi- 
* Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. Survey, Aug., 1876, Vol. II, No. 4, p. 310. 
