LEOPARDS AND CHEETAHS 



was formerly believed to exist only in the Malay peninsula 

 and on the Island of Java, and is, like the snow leopard 

 of the Himalayan Mountains and other high regions, more 

 seldom met with than the ordinary black and yellowish 

 white spotted varieties. Even the black leopard shows, 

 if examined closely, that his coat is spotted much in the 

 same way as the ordinary leopard, but the rings of the 

 spots are more intensely black in color. Of all these dif- 

 ferent varieties of leopards, the snow leopard is without 

 a question the least common and the most beautiful. 



In many prominent zoological works it is said that the 

 black leopard exists only in Asia, and this is generally 

 believed even in sporting circles to-day. The fact, how- 

 ever, is that although much rarer, the black leopard also 

 exists in Africa. In 1906 I was told that Mr. W. McMil- 

 lan, the well-known American, on whose vast estate, " Juja 

 Farm," Colonel Roosevelt had some excellent shooting in 

 the summer of 1909, had killed a black leopard in British 

 East Africa. I could hardly believe this tale, until I, upon 

 the invitation of Mr. McMillan, visited his beautiful home 

 in London. There in the vestibule of his house stood a 

 large, well-mounted, and absolutely black leopard, which 

 this great Nimrod had actually slain in Africa. That the 

 black leopard does not form a distinct species, but is a 

 mere " freak," or but a different variety of the ordinary 

 leopard, is evident from the two facts that there is, in the 

 first place, absolutely no difference in its general build or 

 habits, and, secondly, that we have authentic records of 

 ordinary female leopards, which have born both spotted 

 and absolutely black cubs in the same litter. 



The ordinary spotted leopard is very much feared by 



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