THE LEOPARD 



nipped on to the ant-hill at once, but as, owing to the 

 undergrowth, I could not see more than 10 yards in any 

 direction, and that not clearly, I saw nothing of the leopard, 

 but was much surprised to see at the foot of the ant-hill, at 

 the other side, a pengolin (scaly ant-eater) curled up tight. 



A look at the place where the leopard had been lying 

 showed me that he had been comfortably reposing on the 

 new earth dug out of the pengolin' s burrow, and that, no 

 doubt, the pengolin, a strictly nocturnal animal, coming 

 home perhaps a bit late, found its " front door " occupied 

 by the leopard, and was waiting for him to depart. Calling 

 to the men and Brockman, I kept the pengolin coiled up 

 by giving it an occasional kick, but when the men arrived 

 the fools let it get away into its burrow whilst wondering 

 how to kill it, though they had an axe with them all the 

 time. The curious part of the whole matter was that all 

 this occurred within 200 yards of where I had shot at the 

 buck, so that the noise had evidently not disturbed the 

 leopard or else he had taken no notice of it. 



The ferocity and determination of leopards when 

 attacking, or when v/ounded, is amply illustrated by an 

 adventure concerning which the following account has 

 been kindly given me by Mr. S. Payne Gallwey, who 

 says : "I send you an account of what I remember of the 

 accident to C. de Winton. He and I started on a three 

 weeks' shooting trip, some time in January 1892, from 

 Haputale, going down by Wellawaya and Tellula, meaning 

 to make for Tissamaharama tank as the end of our trip. 



"We had good sport at Tellula, bagging two spotted 

 deer, a bear, and other game, though we missed getting 

 an elephant after a long track. We then moved on to 

 Kudoya, and, the morning after our arrival, de Winton 

 and I tossed for choice of side of the road, each going our 



265 



