44 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



Seeing that individual leopards are so intensely local 

 in habit, and seldom, unless forced by hunger or other 

 cause, leave their own particular section of hill or forest 

 land, it is remarkable how very slight has been the 

 variation in type, not only throughout Africa itself, 

 but between the animals native to that continent, and 

 those of Asia. 



In the north-eastern Transvaal there are two types 

 of leopards, the extremes of each variety being very 

 distinct from one another. That found in the hot, 

 low-lying bush country is a long, lanky animal, rufous 

 in general coloration, having a short coat and rela- 

 tively small and clearly denned rosettes ; it is known to 

 the natives as " m'balana" (the small spotted). The 

 other, a native of the hill country to the west, and met with 

 at a height of about 2000 feet and over, is of a lighter hue ; 

 the spots are larger and less distinct, while the hair is 

 much longer. The animal itself is, I think, usually rather 

 heavier, though possibly not quite so long in the body as 

 its low country brother. The natives call it " Idzimba." 

 However, I am convinced that these superficial differences 

 merely represent the result of possibly a few generations 

 of adaptation to surroundings. At all events, the nearer 

 they are met with to the hills, the more closely do the 

 leopards resemble the upland type, and vice versa. Cases 

 of melanism * occur occasionally, though far less often 

 in Africa than in Asia. Among many hundreds of leopard 

 skins which I have seen in the eastern Transvaal, I never 

 noticed one showing the least tendency in that direction. 



In all forest countries which are well stocked with their 



natural food, leopards are undoubtedly much more 



numerous than the traveller, as the result of mere casual 



observation, might suppose to be the case. They are 



* Entirely black animals. 



