In Northern Parallels to the Death of Pan, Archer Taylor identifies over two hundred variants of Plutarch's tale of the death of Pan. "I shall endeavor to illustrate the more clearly marked groups into which they subdivide themselves and to point out the special characteristics of each group. By this method it will be possible to show that the story has undergone many local modifications and that it enters, in one region or another, into a surprising variety of combinations with other, unrelated themes. . . . I begin with the tales which have the simplest form and pass on to the more involved combinations. Two distinct types of the story and one tale, which has some obscure connection with it, are treated in this fashion. The first type is represented by those stories in which the actors possess human form, and the second by those in which the actors are cats. Finally, a tale which deals with news of a fire is considered briefly." Archer Taylor