THE PANTHER 123 



LEOPARD (Felis pardus). 

 Coloured Plate VI. Fig. i. 



Next to the lion and tiger the Leopard, or Panther, is the 

 largest of the Cat family in the Old World ; it is more widely 

 distributed, being found wherever the two former animals 

 dwell, as well as in many regions where they are absent. 

 There is considerable variety in size and colour, but making 

 allowance for climatic differences, there is but little change 

 in the Leopards all the world over. Usually the animal is 

 from four to five feet in length, with a tail of about three 

 feet. The ground colour in some cases is nearly white and 

 in others jet black, but more commonly it is reddish or 

 yellowish, and marked all over from head to foot and to the 

 tip of the tail with black spots, each with a paler centre. 

 Black animals are only indistinctly spotted ; they are 

 usually found in the Malay Peninsula and neighbouring 

 islands. 



The Leopard is more compact in build than the tiger and 

 has no vestige of a mane or tail tuft. Although a true Cat 

 and constructed on the same model as the lion and tiger, it 

 is very different in some of its habits. If a hunter be 

 chased by either of the larger animals, and can climb a 

 tree so far as to be out of reach of the animal's leap, he is 

 perfectly safe, neither of these creatures being able to climb 

 trees ; but the Leopard is quite at home in a tree, as even 

 the agile monkey can painfully testify. 



In Africa the Leopard is found from Algeria to within a 

 few miles of Cape Town. In South Africa, where the Boers 

 always speak of the animal as the tijger, next to the flesh of 

 the Klipspringer, the favourite food of the spotted carnivore 

 is the baboon. The rocks, among which the baboons live, 

 also afford shelter to the crafty Leopard, and even the 

 vigorous monkey sentinels cannot always detect the foe in 

 time to give warning before one of their number is snatched 

 away. Sometimes two or three ' old men ' baboons will 

 jointly offer fight to their enemy and rend the Leopard in 

 pieces. 



Small antelopes, bush pigs, rabbits, and birds, none come 



