294 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



measure on the continuous chatter of native 

 women and children, who are able to raise 

 such a clamour as would daze an elephant. 

 Bound and blindfold, the captive is given very 

 little food, and is subjected day after day to 

 this ordeal, so that, as might be expected, it 

 soon loses all its spirit, and the village children 

 are able to make a playmate of it without run- 

 ning any risk. Nevertheless, Europeans may 

 be advised to treat the grown-up animal with 

 respect, for any misplaced confidence will be 

 found wrong policy. A most interesting ex- 

 periment was tried in the Paris Zoo not long 

 ago with one of these hunting-leopards. The 

 animal was suddenly brought close to the bars 

 of a paddock containing two wildebeests. The 

 leopard immediately crouched in the attitude 

 of a cat about to spring, and the antelopes, on 

 their side, plainly showed their dread of the 

 intruder. The strangeness of this conduct lies 

 in the fact that neither animal could previously 

 have ever seen the other, for the wildebeests 

 had been born in captivity in a park, and the 

 cheetah had been caught very young in a 

 region of Africa where there are no longer 

 any wildebeests. It had, moreover, also been 

 reared in captivity, and had never been trained 

 for the chase. Yet instinct at once asserted 

 itself irresistibly on either side. The antelopes 

 recognised their hereditary enemy, and the 



