The Cat Tribe 



47 



North. The skin is 13 feet 6 inches from the nose to the end of the tail. The largest 

 Indian tiger-skin, from one killed by the Maharaja of Cuch Eehar, measures 11 feet 7 inches. 



LEOPARDS. 



LESS in size, but even more ferocious, the LEOPARD has a worse character than the tiger.' 

 Living mainly in trees, and very nocturnal, this fierce and dangerous beast is less often 

 seen than far rarer animals. It is widely spread over the world, from the Cape of Good 

 Hope to the Atlas Mountains, and from Southern China to the Black Sea, where it is 

 sometimes met with in the Caucasus. There seems to be no legend of its presence in ' 

 Greece, Italy, or Spain; but it was quite common in Asia Minor; and Cicero, when governor 

 of Cilicia, was plagued by an aristocratic young friend in Koine to send him leopards to 

 exhibit in a fete he was giving. 



Any one who has frequented the Zoo for any time must have noticed the difference in 

 size and colour between leopards from different parts of the world. On some the ground- 

 colour is almost white, in others a clear nut-brown. Others are jet-black. Wherever they 

 live, they are cattle thieves, sheep thieves, and dog thieves. Though not formidable in 

 appearance, they are immensely strong. Sometimes one will turn man-eater. Both in India 

 and lately in Africa cases have been known where they have " set up " in this line as 

 deliberately as any tiger. They have four or five young at a birth, which may often be kept 

 tame for some time and are amusing pets. But the following plain story shows the danger 

 of such experiments. At Hong-kong an English merchant had a tame leopard, which was 

 brought into the room by a coolie for the guests to see at a dinner party. Excited by the 

 smell of food, it refused to go out when one of the ladies, who did not like its looks, wished 

 for it to be removed. The man took hold of its collar and began to haul it out. It seized 

 him by the neck, bit it through, and in a minute the coolie was dying, covered with blood, 

 on the dining-room floor ! 



Photo by C, Reid] 



[Wiiliav:, N.B. 



A YOUNG LEOPARD 



opard oib is far more cat-like in appearance than the young tiger or lion. 



