The Leopard and Panther 169 



or three occasions I nearly paid dearly for the error, and I 

 now believe that the panther is really by far a more 

 dangerous animal to attack. He is, in the first place, 

 much more courageous. For, though he will generally 

 sneak away unobserved as long as he can, if once brought 

 to close quarters he rarely fails to charge with the utmost 

 ferocity, fighting to the very last. He is also much more 

 active than the tiger, making immense springs clear off 

 the ground, which the other seldom does. He can con- 

 ceal himself in the most wonderful way, his spotted hide 

 blending with the ground, and his lithe, loose form being 

 compressible into an inconceivably small space. Further, 

 he is so much less in depth and stoutness than a tiger, 

 and moves so much quicker, that he is far more difficult to 

 hit in a vital place. He can also climb trees, which the 

 tiger cannot do, except for a small distance up a thick, 

 sloping trunk. A few years ago a panther thus took a 

 sportsman out of a high perch on a tree in the Chindwara 

 district. And, lastly, his powers of offence are scarcely 

 inferior to those of the tiger himself, and are amply suffi- 

 cient to be the death of any man he gets hold of. When 

 stationed at Damoh, near Jubbulpur, with a detachment of 

 my regiment, I shot seven panthers and leopards in less 

 than a month, within a few miles of the station, chiefly by 

 driving them out with beaters ; all of them charged that 

 had the power to do so, but the little cherub who watches 

 over 'griffins' got us out of it without damage either to 

 myself or the beaters. One of the smaller species [For- 

 syth means a leopard, which, together with Byth, Jerdon, 

 and other naturalists, he regarded as a true panther of 



