66 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



not lack livino- models! Edward I., according- to 

 the roll of Caerlaverock, displayed three "leopards 

 couchant " as the royal cognisance ; according to 

 other authorites, however, the device consisted of 

 three lions "passant gardant." Tabard and ori- 

 flamme, tressure and inescutcheon are terms having 

 but little significance to-day; yet from its antiquity 

 the science of heraldry is of considerable interest, 

 transporting one to the days when royal Edward 

 watched the fight from the windmill of Cre^y, or 

 Harry of England captained the arrow rain of 

 Aofincourt. A sincrular circumstance should here be 

 recorded; it seems probable that the beasts sent to 

 Woodstock by Frederick II. were not common 

 leopards but cheetahs, or hunting leopards, still 

 trained in the East to take game for their masters. 

 Frederick certainly himself used cheetah for hunting 

 on his return from the Crusades in 1231 ; one thus 

 has a very practical explanation of the collar and 

 chain borne by leopards on coats of arms. 



The hunting leopard {Cynaelurus jubatus) — 

 cheetah of many writers — luipaard and vlackte tiger 

 of the Boers and Colonial Dutch — lefiau of the 

 Bechuanas — stands about thirty-one inches high at 

 the shoulder. Average specimens tape about seven 

 feet in total length, two and a half feet of this 

 measurement being occupied by the tail. The face 

 and ears are much shorter and the vertex of the head 

 more vaulted than in the true leopard ; the body is 



