BULLET AND SHOT 



One evening my cousin and I had, from the 

 bungalow, been watching ibex upon the opposite 

 ridge, when just above the place where they had 

 been feeding, he spotted a black object upon the 

 sky-line to which he called my attention, and 

 the telescope showed that it was a black panther. 

 The freebooter, disappointed in his quest, wandered 

 about for a short time, looking unsuccessfully for 

 the ibex, and then disappeared in the dense jungle 

 lower down the hill. There was no chance of 

 obtaining a shot at the brute it would have taken 

 half an hour at least to reach the place where we 

 saw him and we had to be content with watching 

 him through the glass until he had reached the 

 cover and was perfectly safe. 



THE CLOUDED PANTHER (Felis diardii vel macrocelis) 



Of this rare and beautiful animal, Sterndale says 

 that it is found in Nepaul, Sikkim, Assam, Burmah, 

 and down the Malayan peninsula to Sumatra, 

 Java, and Borneo. I have never seen it, and for 

 the following description of its points of difference 

 from the ordinary panther I am indebted to Doctor 

 Jerdon's work, The Mammals of India : "Ground- 

 colour variable, usually pale greenish - brown or 

 dull clay-brown, changing to pale tawny on the 

 lower parts and limbs internally, almost white how- 

 ever in some ; in many specimens the fulvous or 

 tawny hue is the prevalent one ; a double line of 

 small chain-like stripes from the ears diverging 

 on the nape to give room to an inner and smaller 



190 



