194 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



" And nothing else," answered Green, booking the bet in 

 gold mohurs. 



After this both marched off, as a matter of course, to 

 Brown's bungalow, where the skin and skull of a recently 

 killed animal were triumphantly produced by Brown, and, 

 after examination, pronounced by Green to be those of a 

 panther, and not of a leopard, the latter animal never being 

 found in that part of the country. The bet has never been 

 satisfactorily decided, or any money changed hands in con- 

 sequence, though made ten years ago, for each hero has 

 numerous supporters that he was right and the other wrong. 

 I should be well content to be the money-holder in similar 

 cases. 



Having laid some skins of the larger variety of the 

 pard beside as many of the smaller, I have failed to detect 

 any marked or unvarying difference in the shape, tint, and 

 distribution of the roses, or spots, upon the backs, sides, 

 loins, or tails, or in the ground-colour, beyond this, viz., that 

 the skins of the lesser variety are spotted more closely, and 

 have a darker general hue than those of the other kind, which 

 are lighter in colour, and display more of the yellow-tawny 

 ground, particularly about the head, cheeks, and neck, on 

 which the spots are smaller and more scattered than in the 

 other skins. 



When roused in covert, the larger variety look more 

 tawny and brighter than the lesser, particularly in grass or 

 other jungle, through which the sun's rays penetrate and fall 

 upon the beast. I have seen a large panther's head, throat, 

 and chest look so pale and white as it glared at me, with the 

 setting sun shining full upon him from behind me, that for 

 the moment I have been puzzled as to what I saw before me ; 

 but under no circumstances can I recall any similar paleness 

 and brightness of colour in any individual of the smaller 

 variety. 



I have been unable to satisfy myself that, as has been 

 asserted, the coat of the greater pard is more glossy than that 

 of the lesser, but I think the fur on it is undoubtedly shorter 



