THE LEOPARD 



We had gone out as usual one evening in different 

 directions. I was only accompanied by one old Singhalese 

 tracker, whom I had often employed before, and he and I 

 made our way to a small remote park about 2 miles 

 from camp, where, nothing being in sight, we sat down 

 to wait for deer to come out. 



We heard a lot of deer barking in the jungle round 

 about, and the monkeys were grunting pretty loudly ; 

 but we attached no importance to the noise, as both deer 

 and monkeys often bark and grunt at the sight or sound 

 of man. 



I was sitting on a small ant-hill a little way out in 

 the open in an angle of the park with jungle on either 

 hand and behind me, the open park surrounded by jungle 

 stretching for about 300 yards in front of me, and I 

 presently saw a small animal walking through the grass, 

 about 50 yards ahead, across my front from left to right. 

 I saw it was a feline of some sort, but could only see its 

 head and top of its back above the grass, which was here 

 about 1 8 inches high. It struck me at once that it might 

 be that seldom-seen animal Felis viverrina, the fishing cat, so 

 I cocked my rifle, a single-barrelled breech-loading .303 be 

 it noted, and fired at it when it was just opposite me. I 

 missed, the bullet striking the ground just under its nose, 

 and the little animal turned and bounded back to the 

 jungle, whereupon the old Kapurala came up to me (he 

 had been squatting down about 20 yards behind me) and 

 asked what I had shot at. I said I thought it was one of 

 the big wild cats, but he said it looked suspiciously like a 

 leopard cub, though he acknowledged he might have been 

 mistaken, as it was already drawing towards sundown and 

 light was none too good. 



However we walked towards the jungle into which it 



