446 CARNIVORES. 



tight, he carefully cut the throat close to the jaws of the tenacious animal. As the 

 blood spurted from the wound it was caught in a large but shallow wooden bowl 

 or ladle, furnished with a handle. When this was nearly full, the mask was taken 

 off the chita, and, upon seeing the spoon full of blood it relaxed its grasp, and 

 immediately began to lap the blood from the well-known ladle. When the meal 

 was finished, the mask or hood was replaced, and the chita was once more confined 

 within its cage, as it would not run again during that day.' 



Another account, written many years ago by the late Mr. G. T. Vigne, may be 

 quoted, as somewhat amplifying the preceding one in certain points. The hunting- 

 leopard, as soon as slipped from the cart, " walks towards the antelope with his tail 

 sti'aightened and slightly raised, the hackle on his shoulders erect, his head depressed, 

 and his eyes intently fixed upon the poor animal, who does not yet perceive him. 

 As the antelope moves he does the same, first trotting, then cantering after him ; 

 and when the prey starts off, the chita makes a rush, to which the speed of a 

 racehorse is for the moment much iufeiior. The chitas that bound or spring 

 upon their prey are not much esteemed, as the}- are too cunning; the good ones 

 fairly run it down. When we consider that no English greyhound ever yet, I 

 believe, fairly ran down a doe antelope, whicli is faster than the buck, some idea 

 may be formed of tlie stride and velocity of an animal who usualh' closes with her 

 immediately, but, fortunately, cannot draw a second breath, and, consequently, 

 unless he strike the antelope down at once, is obliged instantly to stop and give up 

 the chase. He then walks about for three or four minutes in a towering passion, 

 after which he again submits to be helped on the cart. He always singles out the 

 biggest buck from the herd, and holds him by the throat until he is disabled, 

 keeping one paw over the horns to prevent injury to himself. The doe he seizes 

 in the same manner, but is careless of the position in which he holds her." 



Many tame hunting -leopards become perfectly gentle and docile, rubbing 

 themselves against the knees of visitors, and purring all the time like so many large 

 cats. It should be observed that the tamed indiNiduals of this species merely use 

 their own natui'al instinct, and develop) no new mental powers as the result of 

 training. 



Extinct Cats. 



In tiie course of this chapter i-eference has been made to the occurrence of 

 existing species of the Cat family in cavern and other superficial deposits. There 

 are, however, in addition to these, a large number of fossil cats, differing more 

 or less markedly from all existing species, and many of which belong to extinct 

 genera ; and no account of the family would be complete without some reference, 

 brief though it must necessarily be, to these extinct types. Some of these as shown 

 \>y the greater number of their teeth, and other characters, belong to what 

 naturalists call more generalised types, and may have been the ancestral forms 

 from which the living cats have originated ; while others are more specialised than 

 even any of the species living. 



Referring first to what may be called time extinct cats, or those belonging to 

 the genus Felis, we may mention that from strata belonging to the Pliocene or 

 upper portion of the Tertiary period in the Siwalik Hills of India, there have been 



