18 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



met also in dense brakes and tangled coverts, where, if 

 hard pressed by the hunter, it takes refuge in a tree, and, 

 if this be large and thickly shaded, it is not without diffi- 

 culty that the animal is discovered, it having a marvelous 

 faculty of concealing itself behind some knotty branch or 

 at the junction of the larger limbs with the trunk. 



3. " Its food is various ; indeed, hardly anything comes 

 amiss to its voracious appetite and blood-thirsty nature, 

 and, what is worse, it wantonly slays more than it can eat, 

 and thus becomes doubly destructive. It attacks birds, 

 monkeys, baboons, dogs, antelopes, sheep, goats, and young 

 cattle. It is said that it causes the natives and colonists 

 more damage than even the lion and other beasts of prey 

 put together. It preys upon the ostrich, among whose 

 kind, from their want of smell and sight, it commits great 

 ravages. I am inclined to believe that of the large num- 

 ber annually destroyed, whether by man or otherwise, two 

 thirds may be fairly charged to the leopard's account. I 

 was, on a certain occasion, an eye-witness to its wonderful 

 powers in this way. It was under these circumstances : 



4. " One evening a little before sunset, while I was 

 still suffering from the effects of fever, all my dogs sud- 

 denly began to give chase to some animal which the dis- 

 tance did not enable me to distinguish. Judging from 

 their movements, however, they had a formidable antag- 

 onist before them. They were, I concluded, from their 

 steady, unbroken, deep bay, close upon the haunches of 

 the enemy, yet I could not distinctly see either the dogs 

 or the object of their pursuit. 



5. " All at once a magnificent leopard sprang right be- 

 fore me from the topmost branches of a tall acacia, clear- 

 ing with a single bound all his fierce assailants. I w r as so 

 astounded at the magnitude of the leap that, looking first 

 at the tree and then at the place on which the beautiful 



