8o Anecdotal Natural History. 



tail, too, is carefully preserved, and dangles from the 

 string which passes round the waist of the successful 

 hunter. 



During all its ravages, the animal behaves with a 

 caution which renders it a very difficult matter even to 

 trace the marauder. 



He will not approach a farm where he can detect the 

 least sign of the presence of danger, and is even cun- 

 ning enough to take up his quarters near one village, 

 and commit his depredations in another at a consider- 

 able distance, in order to lessen the chance of his re- 

 treat being discovered. He often removes to a dis- 

 tant part of the country, too, if he has committed many 

 ravages in his old locality, and fears that he may be in 

 danger in consequence. 



Although the size of the leopard is far inferior to 

 that of the lion or tiger, its strength is very great 

 when the dimensions of the animal are taken into 

 account. One of these creatures has even been known 

 to drag a couple of wolf-hounds, which were tethered 

 together, for a considerable distance into the bush, in 

 spite of their struggles. Animals far larger and heavier 

 than itself, too, fall victims to its attacks, and are 

 carried away without apparent difficulty. 



The muscular force which is compressed into a 

 leopard's body is really amazing. In his ' Eight 

 Years in Ceylon,' Sir H. Baker has the following 

 remarks on it : 



' The power of the animal is wonderful in proportion 

 to its weight. I have seen a full-grown bullock with 

 its neck broken by a leopard. It is the popular belief 

 the effect is produced by a blow of the paw : this is 

 not the case ; it is not simply the blow, but the com- 

 bination of the weight, the muscular power, and the 

 momentum of the spring, which render the effects of a 

 leopard's attack so surprising 



