THE HUNTING LEOPARD 7 1 



of rats, frogs, and carrion, which would be all that 

 his own exertions could provide. 



Considerable confusion regarding the present 

 species long existed in the minds of scientific 

 naturalists. The ancients indeed supposed the 

 cheetah to be a hybrid between lion and leopard, 

 the half-mane on the neck and the spots on the body- 

 lending some colour to this theory. According to 

 them, the pardus was the male of the panther 

 or true leopard ; by leopardus the cheetah seems 

 to have been meant. In any case, the present 

 species was known to the Greeks and Romans, 

 as shewn by a bas relief in the Louvre. Coming 

 to more recent times, we find that Gesner (1551) 

 Chardin (1665) and Bernier all mention the animal, 

 though it was confused both with the Persian 

 race of the true leopard and with the snow leopard 

 of Thibet. Pennant in his "Natural History of 

 Quadrupeds" (1792), first conferred on it the name 

 of hunting leopard, and figured one which had been 

 brought to England from India by Lord Pigot. 

 Althoug-h some of the tang^le was thus beo-innino^ 

 to be adjusted, fresh confusion was caused by the 

 discovery of the same or a similar animal in Africa ; 

 Thunberg having in the Memoires de C Academic 

 de St. Petersburg stated its occurrence at the 

 Cape, while Buffon had described a skin received 

 from Senegal. The French naturalist, Duvaucel, 

 when in India transmitted to Europe some valuable 



