BULLET AND SHOT 



This animal is found in Central, and part of 

 Southern India, and in the north-west from 

 Kandeish, through Sindh and Rajpootana, to the 

 Punjab. In Jeypur and in Hyderabad, it is said 

 by Sterndale to be most common, but it does not 

 seem to be numerous anywhere. 



It stands high on the leg, is tucked up at the 

 flanks, and has dog-like, and only semi-retractile 

 claws, which are moreover very small ; its spots 

 are round, black, and unbroken by colour, and 

 it has a slight mane on the back of the neck. The 

 general ground-colour is bright rufous-fawn. The 

 skull resembles that of a dog, being short and 

 rounded. 



Jerdon, and Sterndale apparently following him, 

 gives the length of the cheetah as 7 feet, but as there 

 is a beautiful (or the reverse) uncertainty about the 

 measurements of even so comparatively common 

 and well-known an animal as the tiger, it would 

 be satisfactory to know what method of measure- 

 ment is employed in each case. 



The cheetah is, for a short distance, the swiftest 

 of the larger animals in the world. Its wonderful 

 speed is taken advantage of by native nobles, who 

 keep tame ones for the purpose of catching antelope. 

 It is only animals which have been caught after 

 they have attained their full growth that are of any 

 use for this work ; and Sterndale, quoting from The 

 Asian, gives in extenso an interesting account of the 

 capture of two cheetahs by means of snares set close 

 to, and all round, a certain tree upon which they 

 were in the habit of whetting their claws. The 



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