IIS 



CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



beeu cli|i|M-il, how skill we explain the jwitience of a jaguar of large size, which finds itself attacked by 

 a jjirl f It' the jaguar were not pressed by hunger, why did it approacli the children at all? There is 

 something mysterious in the affections and hatreds of animals. We have known lions kill three or 

 four dogs that were put into their den, and instantly caress a fifth, which, less timid, took the king of 

 animals by the inane. These are instincts of which we know not the secret" 



THE CHEETAH.* 



THIS animal, called also the Chetah and the Hunting Leopard, exhibits, both in its external forms 

 and habits, such a mixture of the feline and canine tribes, as to justify, apparently, the appropriate 



name C-ytuiilurug, employed by M. Wagler to designate it as a 

 genus. 



Thus, as Mr. Bennett observes, the hunting leopard, uniting 

 to the system of dentition the general habit and many of the 

 most striking peculiarities of the cats, some of the distinguishing 

 features, and much of the intelligence, the teachableness, and 

 the fidelity of the dog, becomes a sort of connecting link 

 between two groups of animals otherwise completely separated, 

 and exhibiting scarcely any other character in common than 

 the carnivorous propensities by which both are in a greater or 

 less degree actuated and inspired. 



Mr. Bennett continues : " Intermediate in size and shape 

 between the leopard and the hound, he is slenderer in his body, more elevated on his legs, and less 

 flattened on the fore part of his head than -the former, while he is deficient in the peculiarly graceful 





SKULL OF CHKKTAH. 



THE ellKKTAH, OK I1UNTI3O LEOPARD. 



and lengthened form, both of head and body, which characterises the latter. His tail is entirely that 

 '< ; and Ins limbs, although more elongated than in any other species of that group, seem to lie 

 * Felisjiibata. Schreber Cynailurus jubatus. Wagler. 



