THE HUNTING-LEOPARD. 199 



body, more elevated on his legs, and less flattened 

 on the fore part of his head than the former ; while 

 he is deficient in the peculiarly graceful and length- 

 ened form, both of head and body, which characte- 

 rizes the latter. His tail is entirely 'that of a cat ; 

 and his limbs, although more elongated than any 

 other species of that group, seem rather fitted for 

 strong* muscular exertion, than for active and long 

 continued speed. 



" In the number and form of his teeth, in the aspe- 

 rity of his tongue, in the conformation of the organs 

 of sense, and in the number of his claws, he accu- 

 rately corresponds with the legitimate species of the 

 genus Felis. The principal character in which he 

 differs from them, consists in the slight degree of re- 

 tractility of these latter organs. Instead of being 

 withdrawn within sheaths appropriate for the pur- 

 pose, as in the cats properly so called, the claws of 

 the hunting-leopard are capable of only a very limited 

 retraction within the skin, and are consequently ex- 

 posed to the action of the ground on which they 

 tread, their points and edges being thus rendered 

 liable to be blunted by the constant pressure to which 

 they are subjected, almost to the same extent as in 

 dogs* The slightest consideration of the uses to 

 which the claws are applied, by the whole of the 

 Feline tribe, in whom they are, in fact, in conse- 

 quence of their extreme power and sharpness, organs 

 of offence, if possible, more deadly and more de- 

 structive than the teeth, will teach us, that the mo- 



