THE LEOPARD AND THE CHEETAH 231 



bution of the mono-colored lion and spotted leopard of the 

 Old World with that of the mono-colored puma and spotted 

 jaguar in the New World. The facts in the two cases are 

 mutually contradictory if the effort is made to build the- 

 ories of concealing coloration on them. In America the big 

 spotted cat has a range restricted to the dense tropical 

 and subtropical forest regions; while the mono-colored cat 

 has a far more extensive range, being found in the north and 

 south temperate zones, and in the high mountains and on 

 the open plains, as well as among the forests in which the 

 jaguar dwells. In Africa the spotted cat is found almost 

 everywhere that the lion goes, while the latter never ven- 

 tures into the dense forests which are favorite haunts of the 

 former. The lion is not only absent from the vast equa- 

 torial forests of West Africa in which the leopard dwells, but 

 also from the isolated forest tracts of East Africa, which are 

 also haunted by the leopard. On the other hand, the leop- 

 ard is found in most of the country wherein the lion lives. 

 Along the Guaso Nyiro, in the Uasin Gishu, and on the 

 Athi Plains, for instance, and in the Sotik and the Lado, we 

 found the lion and leopard in precisely the same country. 

 In this open country of grass and thorn-scrub each was 

 extraordinarily difficult to make out when it was hiding or 

 even when merely lying motionless; and in thick cover they 

 were also extremely and equally difficult to see. We could 

 not find out that the color of the coat had any effect in 

 making one more conspicuous than the other. This was 

 true when they were lying, as they ordinarily were, in ex- 

 actly the same cover. 



The wide distribution of the leopard in altitude and 

 latitude, its abihty to lie concealed alike in the thorn-scrub 



