FELIS. 71 



time as a tiger, three years, to arrive at full growth. Young 

 leopards are more ditlicult to tame than tigers or lious ; and, even 

 when tamed, are less to be trusted. On the whole, this feline has 

 an exceedingly bad character. 



Leopards are killed in large numbers by native shikaris, but, 

 despite the greater .prevalence of the species, fewer leopards than 

 tigers are shot by European sportsmen. This is due to the difficully 

 of tinding leopards, owing to the manner in which they conceal 

 themselves and to their independence of water, and also to the 

 extremely difficult aim they afford to a rifle, on account of the 

 swiftness of their movements and their power of hiding themselves. 

 The ordinary Indian plan of shooting them is to tether a kid or 

 calf, or occasionally a dog, near the tree in which the hunter sits, 

 and to make the bait bleat from time to time by pulling a string. 

 A fa\ ourite device with native shikaris is to put a fish-hook through 

 the unfortunate bait's ear and attach a string thereto. A fight 

 from an earthen pot (garra) is sometimes thrown on the tethered 

 animal, or the ground around is sprinkled with chaff or flour to 

 render the leopard more conspicuous at night. 



Owing to his greater boldness,- a leopard is much more easily 

 trapped than a tiger, and many are taken alive in a kind of cage 

 baited with a live calf, goat, or dog. The bait is usually placed 

 in a separate partition, so arranged as to open and release the 

 bait by the shutting of the door which entraps the leopard. Fall- 

 traps and spring-bows or guns are also used to kill panthers as 

 well as tigers. 



31, Pelis uncia. The Ounce or snoiu Leopard. 



Felis uncia, Schreber, Smif/eth. iii, p. 58G, pi. c (1778); Blyth, Cat. 



p. 58 ; Jerdon, Mam. p. 101 ; Elliot, Mon. Fel. pi. iv. 

 Felis irbis, Ehrenberg, Ann. Sc. Nat. xx'i, p. 410 (1830). 



Ikar, Zig, Sachah, Suh, Tibetan (Bhotia) ; Bharal he. of hills north of 

 Simla ; Tlmnodgh, Kunawar. 



Fur long, dense, and rather woolly. Tail thick, scarcely taper- 

 ing, about three quarters the length of the head and body. 



The skull difters greatly from that of a leopard, being much 

 higher and more convex when viewed from the side, with a depres- 

 sion at the posterior termination of the nasal bones, which are 

 broad and short ; the postorbital processes, too, are less bent down. 

 The face in front of the orbits is very short. 



Colour. Ground-colour above very pale whitish grey, sometimes 

 with a yellowish tinge, below white ; the whole animal spotted 

 with black. The spots on the back, sides, and tail are large, black, 

 interrupted rings or rosettes of rather ii-regular shape, nnich larger 

 than in leopards, the si)ace inside each ring being usually rather 

 darker than the ground-colour ; spots on the head, limbs, and ter- 

 minal portion of the tail without pale centres ; the spots on the 

 belly few in number and rather indistinct. From near the middle 



