38 
CARNIVORA. 
THE PANTHER, AND THE LEOPARD. LA PANTHERE, ET 
LE LEOPARD. 
Felis pardus^ et Felts leopardus. 
These, if they be distinct, as well as some other 
species of the felinm, are by no means clearly defined, 
or satisfactorily described. 
It may be useful to premise, that the word panther 
was applied by the Greeks to an animal very dif- 
ferent from that we call by the name, and which 
was in all probability a species of hysena^^ and that 
the words panthera and pardus of the Augustan age, 
and leopardnsf of the latter eras of the Roman em- 
pire, may possibly be synonymous, and not indicate 
different species ; at least no specific characters have 
been pointed out by which to distinguish them, 
though they have long been separated and treated 
as distinct species by modern naturalists. 
Pliny says, in his time the words variae and pardi 
were applied to all this family; the former to distin- 
guish the females, and the latter the males : and in 
a previous passage he observes, that the panthera 
* Cuvier Ossemens fossiles : but I do not find his authority for 
this assertion, 
f The root of this word indicates that the ancients were in 
error concerning it. We know of no breed between the lion and 
the panther, as the word leopardus seems to indicate. 
