DISTINCT SPECIES OF LEOPARDS. 219 



equal to double that number of the most powerful 

 hounds I have ever seen. Small bok, dogs, goats, 

 and pigs are its favourite prey, but it is not choice in 

 its dietary, for poultry, wild fowl, and even porcupines 

 are frequently utilised for its repast. During the day 

 it may frequently be found sunning itself upon some 

 cliff or table rock adjoining its den, but night is the 

 time that it devotes to hunting, when it will fearlessly 

 approach the residence of the farmers or kraal of the 

 natives, and by the very sudden and unexpected nature 

 of its descent succeed in carrying off its booty. 



Poison of late years has been very successfully 

 employed to thin the numbers of many of the 

 carnivorce, but with the leopard, it has not been so 

 fortunate ; this I account for, as it is very seldom a 

 carrion feeder. Even now, at the present day, this 

 animal is not unknown in the vicinity of Cape Town, 

 and is still to be found in considerable numbers in the 

 neighbourhood of the mysterious-looking range of 

 mountains, the Hottentot Hollands and many of its 

 adjacent spurs. 



The other leopard, which is a much larger animal 

 than that previously described, is at once distinguish- 

 able from it, by standing higher more erect upon its 



