•172 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE A.VD PRODL'CTIOXS. 



F. I'.VKDIS, L. 



The leopard. Tliyt-kyfi. 



Colour rufous fawn, variable in sliailc, with black spots grouped in rosettes. 

 Tail more or less ringed. Belly whitish. Leopards vary greatly in size, and it is 

 not certain if two species arc not included under the same name. Length from G to 8 

 feet, and their habit and ])roportions seem to vary even more than their extreme 

 length. There are probably several local races, but Jerdon merely separates two, tlio 

 I'dtither, a large animal with a longer skull in proportion than the other, and tlie 

 Leopard, with a shorter head proportionally, and longer fur. " Leopards," Dr. Mason 

 remarks, "are probably more numerous than tigers, and they will sometimes attack man, 

 thougli lie seek refuge in the tree tops. Two Karens were travelling on one occasion 

 in the forests of Maulmain, and when daylight departed, they made little bamboo 

 platforms to sleep on duiing the night, in the branches of a large tree, one on a lower 

 main branch, and the other on an upper large branch. During the night, the man on 

 the lower branch was awaked by what he thought to be a tiger, but it must have 

 been a leopard creeping up tlie bodv of the tree above him. It had passed his branch, 

 and was climbing up to where the other slept. He called out : the man answered, 

 and the leopard was still, not a claw moved ; but the sleepy man could not rouse 

 himself, and in a few minutes the leo])ard rushed up, seized the man in his sleep, and 

 jumping down with him, devoured him at the foot of the tree, regardless of all tlie 

 noise the narrator of the story could make in the tree above him. 



"While the inhabitants of a Bgliai village were gathered round my zayat (the 

 guest house, which nearly every village in Burma possesses) one night, to preserve it 

 from a jungle fire raging arotmd, lou<l screams -were heard from a few women left in 

 the house close by, anil it appeared that a leopard, taking advantage of the absence 

 of the inmates, had come under the house, and endeavoured to eifect an entrance 

 tki'ough a hole in the floor. 



"Black leopards, commonly called black tigers, are frequently mot with in Tavoy 

 province. They are dangerous beasts. A few years ago, a Burman was devoured by 

 one, not eight miles distant from Tavoy city." 



F. DiAEDi, Dcsmoulins. 

 F. niacrocclis, Tent. 



Tlie clouded tiger-cat. 



Ground colour pale greenish-brown or clay-brown, changing to tawny on the 

 lower parts and inside the limbs, or sometimes whitish below. A double line of 

 small cateniform spots, from the ears, diverging on the nape to make room for 

 a smaller inner seiies. Large clouded spots, dark edged, and crowded together on tlie 

 back and sides, and some irregular spots on the sides and belly. Throat black-banded. 

 Tail dark ringed. 



Head and body 42'0 ; tail 36 inches = 6;V feet, but it grows larger. 



lianges from the Himalaya through Burma to the Malayan Peninsula. 



F. vivEKEiKA, Bennett. 

 The fishing tiger-cat. 



Colour mouse-grey, sometimes tinged with tawny, -with largo dark spots, oblong 

 on the back and neck, but in lines more or less rounded elsewhere. Cheeks white, 

 with a dark face stiipe. Five or six dark bands on chest. Belly spotted. Tail 

 dark-banded, and black-tipped. 



Head and body 30 to 34; tail 10-5 to 12-5 inches. AVeight I71bs. 



Jerdon remarks that the ears arc small and blunt ; the pupil circular. This last 

 observation would indicate diurnal habits, unless it refers to an atiimal killed at night 

 ■with expanded pupil, when of course no contraction would result. The nasal bones 

 are narrow, giving a viverrine appearance to the face, whence its specific name. 

 J{lyth says this is a tameable species, Imt tliat a newly-caught male killed a tame 

 young leopardess of twice his own size. 



