THE PANTHER. 457 



himself on the spoil, leaves the remains to his famished 

 scout. 



The tiger, who on the declivities of the Himalayas tears to 

 pieces the swift-footed antelope, lacerates on the desert sand 

 coasts of Java the tardy tortoise, when at nightfall it leaves the 

 sea to lay its eggs in the drift-sand at the foot of the dunes. 

 ' Hundreds of tortoise skeletons lie scattered about the strand, 

 many of them five feet long and three feet broad ; some bleached 

 by time, others still fresh and bleeding. High in the air a 

 number of birds of prey wheel about, scared by the traveller's 

 approach. Here is the place where the turtles are attacked by 

 the wild dogs. In packs of from twenty to fifty, the growling 

 rabble assail the poor sea animal at every accessible point, 

 gnaw and tug at the feet and at the head, and succeed by 

 united efforts in turning the huge creature upon its back. 

 Then the abdominal scales are torn off, and the ravenous dogs 

 hold a bloody meal on the flesh, intestines, and eggs of their 

 defenceless prey. Sometimes, however, the turtle escapes their 

 rage, and dragging its lacerating tormentors along with it, 

 succeeds in regaining the friendly sea. Nor do the dogs 

 always enjoy an undisturbed repast ; often during the night, 

 the " lord of the wilderness," the royal tiger, bursts out of the 

 forest, pauses for a moment, casts a glance over the strand, 

 approaches slowly, and then with one bound, accompanied by 

 a terrific roar, springs among the dogs, scattering the howling 

 band like chaff before the wind. And now it is the tiger's 

 turn to feast ; but even he, though rarely, is sometimes dis- 

 turbed by man. Thus on this lonely, melancholy coast, wild 

 dogs and tigers wage an unequal war with the inhabitants of 

 the ocean.'* 



After the tiger and the lion, the Panther and the Leopard 

 are the mightiest felidge of the Old World. Although dif- 

 ferently spotted, the ocelli or rounded marks on the panther 

 being larger and more distinctly formed, they are probably 

 only varieties of one and the same species, as many intermediate 

 individuals have been observed. 



Both animals are widely diffused through the tropical regions 

 of the Old World, being natives of Africa, Persia, China, India^ 



* ' The Sea and its Living Wonders,' p. 154. 



