THE LEOPARD 



395 



frequently brought into collision with Indian villagers ; and a leopard being mobbed 

 in a garden or field of sugar cane or standing corn, from which he will charge sev- 

 eral times, and bite and claw half a dozen before he is dispatched or makes his 

 escape, is no uncommon occurrence in India. At night leopards frequently find 

 their way into goat folds or calf pens, climbing over walls or the roofs of native 

 huts in their burglarious inroads, and carrying off their prey with great boldness 

 and agility. They appear to have a peculiar penchant for dogs ; and I have known 

 many villages in parts of Mysore where leopards were numerous, in which not a dog 

 was to be found, or perchance but one or two, which would be pointed out by their 

 owners as very lucky ones, they having escaped sometimes from the very clutches 



LEOPARD ON THE PROWI,. 



of their unceasing foe, whilst their companions had successively fallen victims to 

 his stealthy attacks." 



This partiality of the leopard for dogs seems to be characteristic of the animal 

 from one end of India to the other, and there are many instances on record where 

 leopards in the hill stations have swooped down in broad daylight and carried off 

 pet dogs from before the very eyes of their European masters or mistresses. It is 

 but rarely that leopards take to man-eating, but instances do occur, one of which 

 came under the notice of the present writer some years ago, when a leopard carried 

 off a considerable number of persons from a village in Kashmir. In Africa the gen- 

 eral habits of the leopard appear to be very much the same as in India, Sir Samuel 

 Baker relating how, on one occasion, a dog was carried off from the very middle of 

 his camp by one of these marauders. 



