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creeper, make admirable steps, bridges, ladders or short cuts of 

 which man or beast, even dogs and goats, readily take advantage ; 

 but unless to make use of them for these purposes, it is, I think, 

 doubtful, whether undisturbed panthers resort to or climb trees. 



Apropos of this, I may quote an extract of a letter I have, since 

 I began to write this paper, received from a friend at Ootacamund: 

 " On Saturday week I was out with * * * beating for elk, and 

 " the dogs started a panther. The shola* was not a large one, and 

 " on her trying to leave the wood, a shot which did not hit her 

 " turned her back, and there being sixteen dogs she thought it wise 

 " to get out of their way, and accordingly took shelter in a tree from 

 " the upper branches of which she was potted like a rook." 



The same writer like many other Indian sportsman, makes a dis- 

 tinction between panthers and leopards, or as he calls the latter in 

 the following extract from the same letter " cheetas" forgetting I 

 think, that the latter name is, if I mistake not, only a corruption 

 of the native term for spotted and refers to the single dot of the 

 hunting leopard F. Jubata. 



" Cheetul" the native hunter's term, often used by English sports- 

 men, for spotted deer, axis maculatus, page 260 of Jerdon, is another 

 instance of this : 



o 



" The day before yesterday I saw a very large panther, when 

 "watching for elk at a big shola on the Koondahs. I have iuvari- 

 " ably found that they habitually frequent woods and are not found 

 " near rocks and caves as is the cheeta ; one of the latter we killed 

 " about a month ago near Maleemund while beating for hares on 

 " rocky ground. The ground-color of the panther is a dark russet, 

 " with the round spot on part of the body formed of four distinct 

 " circles of black, with a clear patch left in the centre of the large 

 " spot, whereas the cheeta has simply a black spot on a nearly white 

 "ground. I have often met with panthers in dense jungle, but 

 " never with cheetas ; they^ are much thicker and stronger than the 

 " cheeta, and rarely exceed six feet six inches in length ; the one we 

 " killed on Saturday was six feet three inches. In speaking of the 

 " cheeta, I mean the one with retractile claws, not the hunting 



* A Neilgherry sportsman's term for a copse or cover. V, 



