CHAPTER VIII. 



PANTHERS AND LEOPARDS (Asiatic). 



SPORTSMEN and naturalists have not agreed whether 

 there is only one species of " pard " or two, or even 

 more, but I have no doubt in my own mind that 

 although there is but one species in India, there are 

 two distinctly marked varieties of the same beast. 

 The larger is generally known as the panther. 



Blyth, a first-rate authority, states " that the 

 larger is paler, with the spots more disposed in groups 

 or rosettes, with not unfrequeiitly one and sometimes 

 even two small specks within these rings, and that the 

 lesser, or leopard, is of a deeper coloured ground, with 

 the groups or imperfect rings of spots smaller, less 

 subdivided, and thicker as regards the quantity of 

 black they contain." Shaw says the leopard is dis- 

 tinguished from the panther by its pale yelloiv colour 

 and is considerably the smaller of the two. This 

 coincides with my own view. 



Besides these two varieties, there is the snow 

 leopard, found in the Himalaya, and occasionally 

 melanoid specimens are met with. The latter are 

 only a lusus natures, and are found only in well- 

 wooded countries, where the forests are extremely 

 sombre in hue, where they feed principally on 



