THE LEOPARD 1 5 



unduly stretched — so, allowing six inches for the stretching, this 

 magnificent leopard must have been over 8 ft. in length. This, 

 as far as I am aware, is a record for an African specimen. 



Distribution. — Leopards are plentiful throughout Somaliland. 



Habits. — Nocturnal in its habits, it is rarely seen during the 

 day, which it spends in caves, hollowed out of the limestone cliffs 

 and hills. It is more abundant in hilly country than in the bush, 

 finding safe retreats in the former. Its chief food consists of 

 sheep and goats, and when these are unobtainable, baboons and 

 the smaller mammals. It frequently attacks the herds while they 

 are grazing on the hillsides in the daytime, rapidly killing several 

 before being driven off by the shrieks of the children in charge. 

 They sometimes clear thorny zarebas six feet or more in height, 

 with their victim in their jaws. One moonlit night I was startled 

 by a struggle within six feet of me, and I was just in time to 

 see a leopard leaving the zareba, in which I had bivouacked for 

 the night, with one bound bearing one of my sheep in its mouth. 

 The leap was well over six feet. On another occasion I was 

 aroused by yelling at night, and on going up to the karia whence 

 the noise came, I was shown a thorn enclosure completely covered 

 over, forming it into a hut, through the top and sides of which 

 one could just distinguish the white coats of the sheep and goats 

 within. I was shown a small opening in the roof about eight 

 feet from the ground, through which a leopard had entered and 

 retreated, carrying away one of the sheep. The Somalis say that 

 the leopard first leaps on top of one of these enclosures, and then 

 ascertains where there is a small opening by letting his tail down 

 through the thorn branches, and as soon as he finds his tail enters 

 easily, he turns round and forces his way inside, seizes his victim, 

 and dives out through the same opening. 



The rapidity of their movements is marvellous — in an incredibly 

 short space of time they will lay out half a dozen sheep and, 

 seizing one, make off. If a leopard kills during the daytime and 

 is driven off, it invariably returns an hour or two before sundown 

 to the scene, in the hope of finding something left. If four or more 

 animals are killed at one time and left where they were killed, the 

 leopard will return night after night until the meat is finished, 

 hiding what it was unable to eat up the nearest tree, out of the 



