THE LEOPARD. 73 



priately designated the " Leopard." By a curious misappli- 

 cation of terms, the name "Leopard" has, however, now been 

 transferred to the Spotted True Cats, and has thus quite dis- 

 placed the old word " Pard." It would, of course, be utterly 

 hopeless to attempt to reintroduce the latter term, and to 

 restore the term "Leopard " to its original owner; and we are 

 all accordingly agreed to call the True Spotted Cats either 

 Leopards or Panthers. 



This transference of the name " Leopard " of course left the 

 animal to which it was originally applied without a distinctive 

 title. To remedy this want, the Hindustani term " Chita " was 

 brought into use in this country to designate the animal which 

 we prefer to call the Hunting-Leopard. Such a use of the term 

 Chita is, however, totally unjustifiable, since that name is applied 

 in India both to the Leopard, or Panther, and the Hunting- 

 Leopard, its meaning being merely "spotted." Sometimes, 

 indeed, the Leopard, or Panther, is especially distinguished 

 as the Chita-Bagh (Spotted Tiger), but the simple term Chita 

 is the common attribute of all these animals. It is on this 

 ground that we prefer to reject the Hindustani term altogether, 

 and to employ the English title of " Hunting- Leopard." Atten- 

 tion may be directed here to a statement in the late Mr. G. P. 

 Saunderson's book 0:1 the wild beasts of India which we are 

 greatly surprised to meet with in a writer of his Indian experi- 

 ence. It is there written that " of the handsome spotted skins 

 that grace many Indian bungalows, and which are generally 

 referred to as Cheeta skins, at least ninety nine out of every 

 hundred are those of the Panther or of the Leopard." Now, 

 no one in their senses ever thought that Chita skins in India 

 meant anything else than Leopard or Panther pelts, and we are 

 surprised that Mr. Saunderson actually went out of his way in 

 an earlier sentence of the paragraph quoted to say that the 

 name Chita was incorrectly applied to the Leopard, or Panther. 



