It was more like the utterance of some four-footed creature; or it might even have been a human voice pronouncing the syllable "wha," several times repeated.
That it was neither bird nor human being, Ossaroo could tell the moment he heard the first "wha." Almost as soon were the others convinced that it was neither: for on turning their eyes to the sycamore, they saw upon the projecting spur that had been so lately occupied by the hornbill, a creature of a very different kind--in short, a quadruped.
Had it been in an American forest, they might have taken the creature for a racoon though a very large one.

On closer scrutiny, many points of resemblance, and also of difference, would have become apparent.
Like the racoon, it had plantigrade feet, a burly, rounded body, and a very thick hairy tail--ringed also like that of the American animal--but unlike the latter, its muzzle, instead of being long and slender, was short, round, and somewhat cat-like; while its hair, or more properly its fur, formed a thick even coat all over its body, limbs, and tail, and presented a smooth and shining surface.

Its general colour was a very dark brown, streaked and mottled with golden yellow; and Caspar remarked, upon the moment of seeing it, that it was one of the handsomest creatures he had ever beheld.
The naturalist Cuvier had made the same remark long before Caspar's time.

So said Karl, on hearing the observation escape from the lips of his brother.
Ossaroo knew that the animal was the "wha," a name derived from its ordinary call; and that it was sometimes known as the "chetwa," and also the "panda." Karl, on hearing Ossaroo's name for it, and indeed, on hearing it pronounced by the creature itself, was able to identify the animal, and to give it still another name--that which has been bestowed upon it by Frederick Cuvier--_ailurus_.

This is the generic name, of which, up to the present time, it has been left in undisturbed possession.