ABSTRACT
THere hare been fo many names devifed for this one beaft, that it is grown a difficult thing, Thefevya^ either to make a good reconciliation of the Authors which are wed to their feveral opini-Jj^®'8 0 ons, or elfe to define it perfe&ly, and make of him a good methodical Hiftory : yet feeing the greaceft variance hath arifen from words, and that which was devifed at the firft for the better explication anddefcriptionofit hath turned to the obfcuration and fhadowing of the truth, I truft it (hall be a good labour to colled out of every Writer that which is moft probable concerning this Beatt, and in the end to exprefs the beft definition thereof we can learn out of all-
Firft of all therefore for as much as all the queftion hath arifen from the Greeks and Latins names, it is moft requifite to exprefs them, and (hew how the different conftru&ion began. The Grecians do indifferently call Po\da}it-> Pardalb, and Panther.the Latines, Panthera, Pardalit, tardus, and Leepardtu, and thefe names are thus diftinguifhed by the learned. Pordalis they fay fignifieth the male, and Pa daiit the female, and alfo P amber a among the Latines for tke female, and Pardw for the male, and thefe are underftood of a fimple kinde without commixture of generation. Leopardus the Leopard or Libbard, is a word devifed by the later writers, compounded of Leo and Pardus,upon opinion that this Beaft is generated betwixt a PArdal and a Lion, and fo indeed it ought properly to be taken, if there be any fuch. Pliny is of opinion, tha tPardut differeth from Panthera in nothing but infex, and other fay, that betwixt the Lions and the Pardals there is fuch a confufed mixed generation asis betwixt Affes and Mares, or Stallions and Affes: as for example, when the Lion covereth the Pardal,then is the Whelp called Leopardut,a Leopard or Libbard, but when the Pardal covereth the Lionefs, then is it called Panthera a Panther.
