FELIS JUBATA. 115 



bounding at them), and was always sportive and frolicsome. It got 

 much attached to me, at once recognizing his name (Billy), and he would 

 follow me on horseback like a dog, every now and then sitting down for a 

 few seconds, and then racing on after me. It was very fond of being 

 noticed, and used to purr just like a cat. It used to climb on any high 

 object, the stump of a tree, a stack of hay, and from this elevated perch 

 watch all round for some moving object. As it grew up, it took first to 

 attacking some sheep which I had in the compound, but I cured it of this 

 by a few sound horsewhippings ; then it would attack donkeys, and get 

 well kicked by them ; and when not half-grown it flew one day at a full- 

 grown tame nil-ghai, and mauled its legs very severely before it could be 

 called off. I had some chikaras (Gazella Bennettii) caught, and let loose 

 before it to train it. The young cheeta almost always caught them 

 easily, but it wanted address to pull them down, and did not hold them. 

 Occasionally, if the antelope got too far away, it would give up the 

 chase, but if I then slipped a greyhound, it would at once follow the 

 dog and join the chase. It was gradually getting to understand its 

 work better, and had pulled down a well-grown antelope fawn when I 

 parted with it, as I was going on field service. 



Its mode of hunting the antelope has often been described ; and I 

 transfer an account of it from the pages of the Indian Sporting Review. 



"On a hunting party," says Buchanan Hamilton, " the cheeta is carried 

 on a cart, hooded, and when the game is raised the hood is taken off. 

 The cheeta then leaps down, sometimes on the opposite side to its prey, 

 and pursues the antelope. If the latter are near the cart, the cheeta 

 springs forward with a surpassing velocity, perhaps exceeding that which 

 any other quadruped possesses. This great velocity is not unlike the 

 sudden spring by which the tiger seizes its prey, but it is often continued 

 for three or four hundred yards. If within this distance the cheeta does 

 not seize its prey, he stops, but apparently more from anger or disappoint- 

 ment than from fatigue, for his attitude is fierce, and he has been known 

 immediately afterwards to pursue with equal rapidity another antelope 

 that happened to be passing. If the game is at too great a distance when 

 the cheeta's eyes are uncovered, he in general gallops after it until it ap- 

 proaches so near that he can seize it by a rapid spring. This gallop is as 

 quick as the course of well-mounted horsemen. Sometimes, but rarely, 

 the cheeta endeavours to approach the game by stealth, and goes round 

 a hill or rock until he can come upon it by surprise. This account of the 



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