CHAPTER XL 



Panthers and Panther-shooting Several Species and Varieties The 

 Grass and Tree Panthers Their extraordinary Boldness and 

 Agility The Yoice of the Panthers The " Sawyer" and his Noc- 

 turnal Pranks A Desperate Set-to with a Panther within a House. 



AMONG beasts of prey in Bengal is one called by some the 

 leopard, and by others the panther, regarding the correct 

 nomenclature of which much discussion has taken place at 

 various times. This animal Fells pardus or kopardus is very 

 common throughout the country, the " Soonderbuns " only ex- 

 cepted, where, I believe, it has never been met with by the 

 sportsman or the woodcutter ; and probably it is the only one 

 among the predatory and dangerous classes which has multi- 

 plied of late years, being often now seen where it was rare 

 thirty years ago ; in fact, it has become so common and so 

 extensively distributed over the entire country that its ap- 

 pearance should cause no surprise in any tract in which 

 fields of grass or patches of thorns offer it concealment by 

 day. For the increase of this truly dangerous and mischie- 

 vous cat I will not attempt to account in this place. 



Most authors and sportsmen agree in this, that there are 

 in Bengal a larger and a smaller kind, some insisting on dis- 

 tinct species, while others admit only a variety of the same 

 species. The former, in support of their theory, point out, or 

 rather enumerate, certain marked differences in structure, 

 colouring, and habits ; the latter assert that such differences 

 may, and do, appear in varieties of the same species ; as, for 

 example, in dogs, sheep, goats, etc. 



So far as my own observation enables me to form an 

 opinion, I should say that within the limits of the territories 



