BULLET AND SHOT 



it is in small ones ; while the spots or stripes, as 

 the case may be, are nearer together in the case 

 of the latter than in that of the former. 



The claws of a panther are those of a true cat, 

 being retractile, and the skull is long and low. 



The most extraordinary boldness amounting 

 to sublime impertinence and the most subtle 

 cunning are found combined in the case of this 

 animal. He will dash into a house or a tent to 

 carry off a dog, but he is very clever in detecting 

 danger when means are being taken to effect his 

 destruction. 



Panthers, like tigers, can be bagged by beating, 

 but the natural acuteness of the animal often saves 

 one of the former, when a tiger would, in the 

 majority of cases, go forward to the guns. 



One day I was posted on a shooting ladder on 

 the bank of a small nullah in which a pony had 

 been killed by panthers. There was only a narrow 

 strip of jungle, but this was bushy and thick. The 

 beat had hardly begun, when the head of a large 

 panther appeared for a moment from a thicket in 

 front, staring up directly towards me, and was 

 instantly and silently withdrawn. As the men 

 came on, I confidently expected a shot, but the 

 animal did not reappear. He must have seen 

 me, and immediately decided that danger lay with 

 me, and not with the yelling mob of beaters. 



On another occasion in a beat, I saw a few 

 square inches of a panther's skin through a bush 

 too far off for a shot upon so limited a view- 

 but the beast slipped away, though how he 



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