LEOPARDS AND PANTHERS 71 



of the tigress, who was silently slaking her thirst off the cow. 

 Finding, after a few minutes' survey, that the animal embracing 

 the cow was probably a dangerous one, they scuttled up the 

 south bank and commenced grazing again." 



LEOPARDS AND PANTHERS 



Naturalists have come to the conclusion that there is but 

 one species of leopard, but two well-marked varieties. The 

 larger with more symmetrical rings arranged in rosettes, the 

 fur deep, and tawny in hue, length from 6J to 7 J feet, of which 

 the tail is 2| feet, or 3 feet. It hovers about villages in the 

 plains, and is most hurtful to cattle, and dogs especially. The 

 panther is a smaller and more active animal, living principally 

 on such game as it can capture. It is lighter in colour, and 

 the rosettes are not so regular. In size it ranges from 3 to 

 3^ feet to root of tail, which is 2\ feet ; height, I J to 2 feet. 

 The head is rounder, and it is most common in the hills, and 

 particularly partial to goats and dogs. 



In parts of India the panther is more destructive to human 

 life than tigers it will remove thatch, enter a house, kill and 

 eat the people. At Shillong, Major Montagu, the commis- 

 sariat officer, caught in the same trap, in his own compound, 

 twelve leopards and a small tiger in twelve months. Mason 

 gives instances of people sleeping in trees being killed and 

 eaten by panthers. 



The black panther is but a melanoid of the true panther, 

 and a female has been known to produce occasionally a black 

 and at other times ordinary panthers. Although these are 

 lusus natures, they are far commoner in damp heavy forests 

 such as those of Mergui and Java and Malaya than in more 

 open country. It is well known animals and insects get 

 assimilated in colouring to their surroundings. In the Malaya 

 Peninsula an ordinary leopard would soon starve, for he has 

 to prey upon Gibbons and other monkeys, that live aloft, and 

 if of an ordinary hue, he would be conspicuous, and his prey 

 would quickly scamper away ; but now and then, in places far 

 apart, and under totally dissimilar conditions of climate and 

 foliage, a black panther is occasionally come across. I have 



