That is a kitten. A panther kitten. Offspring of the catamount. Doesn’t look all that happy to have its picture engraved.
On a digital device, there’s no telling how large this illustration was, but in the printed copy of A Natural History of New York it was 1/3 the natural size of the real article. The adult panther down the page is represented at 1/18th of the natural size.
The book I found in the Biodiversity Heritage Library by looking for James Erxleben illustrations. I’m not positive he illustrated this, since there are a lot of volumes. The only credit on the page itself is to Packard, Garit & Co., Albany, the engravers and printers. The volume has a statement after the title page saying that “copy right has been secured for the people of New York by Samuel Young, Secretary of State.” This volume, “Division 1: Zoology,” seems to have been written by James E. De Kay. But the first 176 pages are by William H. Seward (20 years before he became the U.S. secretary of state who bought Alaska from the Russians), and have, like, charts of legislators and details about deliberations and, uh, the model prisons of Philadelphia and “New-York” that have since been imitated by other states and… well, there are a few pages of pictures at the end.
Including angry kitty here.