250 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



The head during fear is often turned in the opposite 

 direction to that from which the danger is expected to 

 arrive. The eyes are partially closed, and tightly so 

 if the fear amounts to terror. The nostrils are pinched 

 so as to give the face a characteristic expression. 

 These acts also have a purpose. It is a natural instinct 

 in the higher animals to turn away the face if any 

 special injury is directed towards it, and to close the 

 eyes either partially or completely and contract the 

 nasal orifices in order to give protection to the delicate 

 organs contained within, and in the leopard this 

 instinct seems to be so highly developed and so easily 

 called into action as to occur in general states of fear, 

 even when the danger is not specially directed to the 

 sensitive organs of sight and smell. The limbs and 

 tail are held stiff and the body loses its great muscular 

 laxity. The corners of the mouth are raised, the 

 upper jaw elevated, the lower jaw depressed, the 

 mouth is partially opened and the canine teeth dis- 

 played. The general facial expression is one of 

 fierceness, and when a wild carnivorous animal is in 

 fear or terror it must undoubtedly be fierce. 



The domestic cat when terrified has been described 

 as arching its back and erecting the hair over the 

 whole body, especially on the tail, and as raising the 

 basal portion of the tail upright and bending the ter- 

 minal extremity to one side. I have never noticed 

 this attitude in the leopard, nor by experiment have I 

 been able to obtain anything resembling it ; and it is 

 possible that, owing to the great strength of the 

 animal, it would not, in its native haunts, experience 

 fear to any great extent, and would therefore not have 

 the emotion so highly developed and exhibited in a 



