THE LEOPARD 



not at all particular as to their food, and do not turn up 

 their noses at carrion in a pretty " high " condition ; whilst 

 they will tackle any young or weak animal from an elk to 

 a hare. Dogs are an almost irresistible attraction, for some 

 reason or other, and cases have been known of dogs having 

 been pounced upon and carried off when following at master's 

 heel. Mudaliyar G. Jayawardene, the Revenue Officer of 

 Tamankaduwa, told me that once when his wife, who had 

 been away, was returning to Topawewa along the road from 

 Habarane in a travelling cart, a leopard actually pounced on 

 a favourite dog, which was trotting along just behind the 

 cart, and carried it away. 



The Mudaliyar also told me of a case in which one 

 of his men came upon a battle-royal between a leopard 

 and a pig. The man did not wait to see the result, but, 

 with an eye to meat, shot the pig, whereupon the leopard, 

 absolutely oblivious to all other sights or sounds, pounced 

 upon the dead pig and worried it, enabling the man to 

 reload and actually shoot the leopard as well. 



I think it is a mistake to call a leopard cowardly it 

 is anything but a coward. Cautious and cunning it cer- 

 tainly is, but most sportsmen speak of it as a courageous 

 and very dangerous animal, more determined than a tiger 

 in its attack, and they respect it accordingly. 



The leopards take a fairly heavy toll of cattle in the 

 low country, and occasionally kill a young buffalo if it 

 happens to stray from a herd or from its parent's protection 

 in fact they may be looked upon as general marauders, 

 and would rob a hen-roost if nothing else was available. 



There are also occasional instances of man-killing. A 

 good many years ago, either in the Anuradhapura or 

 Vavoniya district, a leopard actually broke into a house 

 and severely mauled a man and a boy. 



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