' 156 
THE PANTHER. 
“ Bears’ meat is good,” said Charles 
Dean; “ but bears do not eat much flesh.” 
“Not if they can get any thing they like 
better, such as corn or fruits.” 
“But is it true, sir, that the panther, or 
puma, is so wild?” asked Sidney. “I think 
I have heard of their being tamed; and 
those we saw in the menagerie were very 
gentle,—‘as gentle as kittens,’ the keeper 
said; and they looked so.” 
“No, it is not true. They have often 
been rendered very tame by kind and 
gentle treatment. Kean, the actor, had one 
which followed him about like a dog and 
delighted in being noticed and petted by 
visitors. Sir William Jardine, editor of the 
4 Naturalist’s Library,’ speaks of one which 
lived in an unoccupied room of the old Col¬ 
lege of Edinburgh, where it amused itself 
leaping and clinging about the joists and 
timbers, and by jumping in and out of a 
large tub of clean water, appearing to take 
great delight in his bath. His favourite 
amusement was playing with the feet of 
those who came to visit him ,— 4 entirely 
after the manner of a kitten.’ ” 
“ I should rather be excused,” said Rich- 
