JUNGLE-CAT AND CARACAL — HUNTLNG-LEOPARD 133 



of the Indian domesticated cats, although, on the other hand, it may quite likely 

 itself be the descendant of domesticated cats which ran wild. The tail is a little 

 more than half the length of the head and body, and like that of domesticated 

 cats tapers towards the end. In colour it is brownish, or ashy grey, marked on 

 the sides with dark cross-stripes or rows of spots, the head and back showing 

 indistinct stripes. 



Jungle-Cat and The jungle-cat (F. chaus) is a species connecting the more 



caracal. typical cats with the lynxes, and has a very wide geographical 

 distribution, ranging from northern Africa and the Caucasus through western Asia 

 to India, Ceylon, and Burma. As it is not a distinctive Indian animal, it need not 

 be fully described in this place. The same remark applies to the caracal 

 (F. caracal), which is essentially a lynx of a uniform red colour, but retains the 

 long tail of the more typical cats. It is common to India and Africa ; and was at 

 one time very generally kept by the native princes in most parts of India fox- 

 hunting purposes. 



The range of the hunting-leopard {Cyn&lurus jubatus) extends 

 over Africa, and thence through south-western Asia to Persia, the 

 countries round the Caspian, and India. It is as yet unknown how far south the 

 hunting-leopard (which is absent from the Malabar coast and Ceylon as well as 

 from the north of the Ganges) is found in India, but its range there is probably 

 much the same as that of the blackbuck. Although, as above mentioned, common 

 to India and Africa, the chita, as this species is called by the natives, is fully 

 noticed here on account of its extensive employment in hunting in the former 

 country. 



The hunting-leopard is about the size of a leopard, but stands higher on its 

 legs, and is more slender in build. The pupils of the eyes are x-ound, the ears 

 short and round, the fur coarse, rather longer on the neck than elsewhere, and 

 moderately long and somewhat shaggy on the under-parts. The ground-colour, 

 which varies between pale brownish yellow and vivid reddish yellow, is lighter 

 below than on the sides and the back, and is marked nearly all over with small 

 solid round spots, not arranged in rosettes. The chin and throat are whitish, and 

 without spots, and a black line runs from the eye to the upper lip, while a less 

 distinct one, which in many cases separates into spots, extends from the outer 

 corner of the eye to the ear, the latter being black outside and yellowish brown 

 round the edge. Like the body, the tail, which is more than half the length of 

 the body, is spotted down to the indistinctly ringed end. Young hunting-leopards 

 look grey, and appear to be unspotted, on account of their long hair, but show their 

 markings when shorn. The full-grown animal has a length of 42 inches, a tail- 

 length of 30 inches, and a shoulder-height of about 32 inches. 



Hunting-leopards are employed for the chase, and regarded as essential to the 

 state of many Indian princes. They are usually caught when full-grown, and 

 their habits are consequently well known to the men who catch and train them. 

 The usual haunts of these animals are low, solitary hills overlooking plains inhabited 

 by blackbuck, which form their principal prey, although they also kill gazelles, 

 and no doubt deer and other mammals as well. Now and then they carry away 

 goats and sheep, but they rarely molest domesticated animals, and never, so far as 



