CHAPTER X. 



THE PANTHER (Felts Pardus}, THE LEOPARD, OR 

 HUNTING CHEETAH (Felis Jubatus\ THE SNOW 

 LEOPARD (Felis Undo), THE CLOUDED LEOPARD 

 (Felis Diardii ml Macrocelis\ AND THE INDIAN LION 

 (Felis Led). 



THE PANTHER (Felis Pardus) AND 

 PANTHER SHOOTING 



" I ^HIS beautiful, yet cruel and treacherous wild 

 JL cat, occurs all over India, alike on high hill 

 ranges, as in the low -lying and torrid plains 

 wherever in fact there are sufficiently extensive 

 covers to afford him safe retreats. He is by no 

 means exacting in his requirements as to residence. 

 Large timber forests, light scrub jungles, rocky hills 

 clad with very little vegetation, and the dense reed 

 and grass expanses of Assam, Bengal, and the 

 Terai, all seem to suit him equally well. 



It is not surprising that so accommodating an 

 animal should be liable to considerable variation 

 particularly in size ; and, until quite recently, many 

 authorities held that there were two species, 

 respectively termed by Sterndale in his edition 

 of the Natural History of Mammalia published 

 in 1884, Felis pardus, and Felis panthera. There 

 is, in spite of laborious efforts on the part of some 



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