164 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



the leopard is to be feared. Nothing is too small or too large for 

 its attack ; from a fowl upon the roost to a cow in the pasturage, 

 all that belongs to the domestic stock is fair game for the wily 

 leopard. 



The cautious approach of this animal is so wary that a dog is 

 pinned by the neck and carried off before it is aware of the presence 

 of its enemy. Upon one occasion in Africa we were bivouacked 

 for the night on the banks of the Settite river, and no sound dis- 

 turbed the repose of the camp. Suddenly a leopard bounded into 

 the centre, where the Arabs were sleeping around the embers of a 

 splendid fire, and seizing one of the dogs, it sprang into the dark- 

 ness, carrying its captive with it. The remaining dogs rushed off 

 in pursuit, together with all the Arabs with swords and shields, 

 and the leopard dropped its prize about 150 yards from our 

 enclosure. The unfortunate dog had been surprised in its sleep, 

 and it died in a few hours frc/ni the injuries sustained, the neck 

 and throat being terribly lacerated. It would have been natural 

 to suppose that the dogs would have given an alarm on the 

 approach of the wild animal, but the noiseless tread of the leopard, 

 as usual, was unheard, even in the extreme stillness of a calm 

 night. The sudden attack of a leopard is generally so unexpected 

 that a dog has no time for self-defence, and being invariably seized 

 by the neck, it is at once rendered helpless, and cannot utter a 

 warning shriek before it is carried off. I was walking with a very 

 powerful bull terrier at Newera Ellia in Ceylon, when the dog, who 

 was running through the jungle within a few yards of me, suddenly 

 disappeared without a cry, and was never heard of again ; this 

 same dog would have made a good defence had it confronted the 

 leopard face to face. 



On another occasion a dog named Matchless, a cross between 

 foxhound and pointer, was seized by a leopard in open day when, 

 together with a pack of hounds, walking through a jungle-path at 

 Dimbola, not far from Newera Ellia. The leopard sprang suddenly 

 from a tree, and, seizing the dog, immediately ascended, and took 

 refuge among the boughs with the hound suspended in its mouth. 

 The entire pack bayed the audacious enemy ; it then dropped the 

 dog and jumped from tree to tree, followed beneath by the excited 

 hounds. At length the leopard reached a large tree, which was 

 sufficiently isolated to prevent it from springing to any adjoining 

 branches. In this position it was surrounded, and became the 

 central object, where it remained snarling at the infuriated pack. 

 The party of hunters now commeHced a bombardment with stones, 

 and a lucky hit induced the leopard to either jump or fall into the 



