THE LEOPARD 
the carcass. This most people would have considered a very gallant and 
meritorious exploit on the part of a lad of fifteen, but the old forester was 
of a different opinion. 
““Tt was all very well,’ he said, ‘for us who lived in the open country 
to wage war with tigers, but with him, who lived on sociable terms with 
then, in the jungle, the case was different. I have no quarrel with tigers! 
I never injured one of them, they never injured me; and while there was 
peace between us, I went among them without fear of danger. But now 
that this young rascal has picked a quarrel, and commenced hostilities, 
there is no saying where the thing will end!’” 
Perhaps, after all, the most typical of all the Felide, as 
it is the most widely distributed, is the beautiful leopard or 
panther — an “all-round cat.” Anciently it was to be 
found all over Africa and Arabia, eastward to Japan, 
and southward as far as Ceylon, Java, and Borneo; but, unless 
we regard the ounce as a mere variety, the species does not 
range north of the Sahara, Turkestan, or the Himalayan foot- 
hills except in northern China. Bones indistinguishable from 
those of the modern leopard are exhumed, however, from the 
caves and superficial deposits of southern Europe, even as far 
west as England. In such a vast range highly diverse climates 
and conditions must be met, and we should expect to find as 
we do, much variety within the species. 
Leopard. 
In size, the differences are so great, that ‘‘while in the smallest examples 
the total length of the head, body, and tail does not exceed five feet, in the 
largest it reaches to as much as eight feet.” The biggest known have come 
from eastern Siberia. The tail is usually about as long as the body, but 
varies greatly in relative Jength. The ground color in general is yellowish- 
fawn, deepening in some examples to red or to a rich nut-brown, and light- 
ening into pure white on the throat and abdomen, profusely spotted. The 
spots take the form of rosettes or incomplete rings of black, inclosing an 
area without any central spot, which may or may not be darker than the 
ground tint; on the flanks, lower legs, and tail, the spots are smaller and 
mainly solid, and toward the end of the tail they become rings. Local 
influences vary this typical pattern. Thus the skins of African leopards 
may always be distinguished from Asiatic skins by their smaller and more 
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