62 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
part of his head than the former, while he is deficient 
in the peculiarly graceful and lengthened form, both of 
head and body, which characterize the latter. His tail 
is entirely that of a cat; and his limbs, although more 
elongated than in any other species of that group, seem 
better fitted for strong muscular exertion than for active 
and long-continued speed. From these indications it 
may be gathered that he approaches much more nearly 
to the feline than to the canine group: we shall therefore 
follow the example of zoologists in general, by referring 
him for the present and provisionally to the genus Felis, 
and proceed to point out more particularly the characters 
by which he is connected with, as well as those by which 
he is distinguished from, the rest of that formidable and 
extensive tribe. 
In the number and form of his teeth, in the asperity 
of his tongue, in the conformation of his organs of sense, 
and in the number of his claws, he accurately corres- 
ponds with the legitimate species of the genus Felis. 
The principal character in which he differs from them 
consists in the slight degree of retractility of these latter 
organs. Instead of being withdrawn within sheaths 
appropriated for the purpose, as in the whole of the cats 
properly so called, the claws of the Hunting Leopard 
are capable of only a very limited retraction within the 
skin, and are consequently exposed to the action of the 
ground on which they tread, their points and edges 
being thus rendered liable to be blunted by the constant 
pressure to which they are subjected, almost to the same 
extent as in the dogs. The slightest consideration of 
the uses to which the claws are applied by the whole of 
the feline tribe, in whom they are, in fact, in consequence 
