THE LEOPARD 57 



having the courage to go in with his assegais and drive 

 him out. At all events, the man (a Swazi) entered, and 

 almost immediately was attacked by the leopard, which 

 he succeeded in beating off only after he had received 

 several nasty wounds. This animal is said to have been 

 a male. 



Leopards are good swimmers, and have no objection 

 to crossing water. During the winter months the drift- 

 tangled islands in the middle of the Sabi are very favourite 

 day resorts, especially for females with cubs. Sometimes 

 quite a deep and relatively wide channel has to be crossed 

 to reach these refuges, and, where the water is shallow 

 and the current slight, I have known dead impalas dragged 

 through to the islands. The prey is always hauled along 

 by the neck, much after the custom usual with lions, 

 and is seldom eaten exactly on the spot where it has been 

 killed, but is dragged away to some favourite lair, which 

 may be a hundred or more yards distant. 



The secretive habits of these cats prevent their life 

 history being studied in the manner possible with lions, 

 but there is no doubt that, in a wild state, it is exceptional 

 for more than one of each litter of cubs to arrive at 

 maturity, and also that a leopardess spends as much time 

 and patience in the instruction of her offspring as a 

 lioness does. Pairs of leopards have been taken at the 

 same bait, which were undoubtedly mother and daughter, 

 or mother and son, though the younger animals had often 

 very nearly attained to the size of their parents, and 

 must have been in some cases quite eighteen months old. 

 I have seldom known a leopardess accompanied by more 

 than one well-grown cub, though two very small ones are 

 often found with her. 



Leopards are unsociable and solitary by nature, and 

 on the whole they are silent creatures. Their ordinary 



