24 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspeares Time . 
of them for the sweetness of his breath, that streameth forth of his 
nostrils and ears like smoke, which our paynters mistaking, corruptly 
doe make fire.” 
By painters this author probably meant heraldic artists. 
The correct blazonry of a panther has flames issuing from 
the mouth and ears. When thus depicted it is termed 
“ incensed.” The looks of this animal were supposed to 
have a most baneful influence. 
“ The panther, knowing that his spotted hyde 
Doth please all beasts, but that his looks them fray. 
Within a bush his dreadful head doth hide, 
To let them gaze while he on them may prey.” 
(Spenser, Sonnet 53.) 
Mr. Elvin, in Anecdotes of Heraldry , 1864 (p. 59), tells 
the following story :— 
“ In the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. a leopard, which 
had been presented to Sir John Giffard of Chillington, escaped from 
her cage, and was pursued by the knight, bow in hand, accompanied 
by his son. Having hurried to the top of a steep ascent, nearly a mile 
from his house, Sir John overtook the beast as it was about to spring 
upon a woman with an infant; and as, in his still breathless state, he 
was preparing to shoot at it, his son, fearing his haste might weaken 
the force of the shot, called out, ‘ Preigne haleine, tire fort.’ Sir John 
paused, took breath, drew his bow strongly with a sure aim, killed the 
leopard, and saved the woman. To this day the Giffards of Chillington 
bear as their crest a leopard’s head and an archer with bended bow, 
whilst the words ‘ Preigne haleine, tire fort,’ form the family motto.” 
Sir John Mandeville, in his Travels y written about the 
year 1350, mentions the small hunting leopard, or cheetah, 
employed in Cyprus :— 
“In Cipre men hunten with papyonns, that ben lyche lepardes, 
and thei taken wylde bestes right welle, and thei ben somdelle more 
then lyouns; and thei taken more scharpely the bestes and more 
delyverly than don houndes.” (Page 29.) 
The Puma was considered by the early colonists of 
the New World to be merely a degenerate 
variety of the lion, and was spoken of by 
