CARNIVORA. 
67 
On crossing the Atlantic we find, as is generally 
the case with all other animals, this formidable genus 
spread over the whole of the great western continent j 
but we do not meet with any of the species known 
in the old world. They have cats in plenty, but 
none like ours ; and it is to be lamented, that any of 
those proper to America should ever have been named 
by Europeans there after animals, which are found 
only in Africa and Asia; as the American lion, 
American tiger, &c. The panther of the old world, 
and the jaguar, or American tiger, are certainly very 
similar ; but the difference between them is specific, 
and it may be doubted whether they would ever 
breed together^. 
Climate or locality has undoubtedly very great and 
wonderful effects upon the bodies of animals ; and 
few species are widely disseminated, though the genus 
may overspread the earth. The changes wrought in 
their generations by transportation or emigration may 
possibly have produced effects but little surmised ; 
and it is perhaps hardly too much to conjecture, that 
all the species included in the same genus, or in 
other words, that all those animals, which, although 
* Mr. Cross has bred the panther^ or leopard^ as well as the 
jaguar, but has known no instance of sexual intercourse between 
the transatlantic species and that of the old world, notwithstanding 
their great similarity, and though every opportunity has been af- 
forded them. 
F 2 
