THE LEOPARD 



so that it is never safe to say of any animal, " It always does 

 so-and-so " the unforeseen often happens. 



Referring to the leopard incident related in my chapter 

 on snipe shooting, about two weeks after that visit to 

 Haburane an unfortunate man, of the village near where 

 we had seen the animal, returning home from an outlying 

 garden one day, met it face to face and was promptly 

 attacked and slain. 



This attack was entirely unprovoked, as the poor man 

 was unarmed, and I can only suppose it was a case of 

 impulse owing to the sudden meeting. I am not aware 

 of any case of a leopard having become a confirmed 

 man-eater. 



The leopard in Ceylon is not an animal which can be 

 pursued and shot in the ordinary way like deer, buffalo, or 

 elephants, as it has no regular haunts or feeding grounds, 

 and is not the sort of animal that can be tracked to its lair, 

 because the chances are it has not got one, except perhaps 

 during the wet season. 



The only ways in which they are or can be shot are 

 by accidental meetings when quietly traversing jungle or 

 park ; by waiting near a " kill," or by tying up a dog 

 or other bait in the neighbourhood of any place they 

 have begun to make raids upon ; or by night watching 

 at water-holes. 



Most of them are shot by the last-mentioned method, 

 for even a native will sometimes expend lead on a leopard, 

 as he can sell the skin and claws. 



There is a Government reward in some districts, I 

 believe, of Rs. 5 per head for their destruction ; but few 

 natives apply for it, as it entails the delivering up of the 

 skin before the reward is paid, and they can probably sell a 

 skin to a travelling pedlar for that amount, or more. 



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