HUNTING AXTEL 



179 



THE CnEETAH. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



HUNTING ANTELOPES WITH THE CHEETAH. 



THE cheetah, or hunting leopard 

 is spread extensively throughout 

 Africa and India. Mr. Bennett ob- 

 serves that " Chardin, Bernier, Tavei- 

 nier, and others of the older travellers, 

 had related that in several parts of 

 Asia it was customary to make use 

 of a large spotted cat in the pursuit 

 of game, and that this animal was 

 youze in Persia, and cheetah in India;" but the statements of these 

 writers were so imperfect, and the descriptions given by them so 

 incomplete, that it was next to impossible to recognize fhe par- 

 ticular species intended. We now, however, know with certainty 

 that the animal thus employed is Fells jubata of naturalists, which 

 inhabits the greater part both of Asia and Africa. It is common 

 in India and Sumatra, as well as in Persia, and is well known in 

 Seneo-al and at the Cape of Good Hope ; but the ingenuity of the 

 savage natives of the latter countries has not, so far as we know,, 

 been exerted in rendering its services available in the chase, in 

 the manner so successfully practised by the more refined and 

 civilized inhabitants of Persia and Hindostan. 



The cheetah differs in one or two places from the typical of 

 'ts lace. The Felida in general possesses a broad, rounded paw. 



