THE LEOPARD 187 



6 and 7 feet from nose to tail-end. ^Yhat he 

 lacks in impressiveness, as the hon's near relation, 

 he gains in beauty of colour and markings. Seen 

 in the early morning, he crosses your range of 

 vision like a swift, yellowish flash; but if yoiur 

 shot should have been successful, you find that the 

 pale creamy smudge which at a short distance he 

 resembled resolves itself, on nearer approach, into 

 a dehcately coloured coat spotted — or, to be more 

 precise, rosetted — ^inblackuponapale, softly furred, 

 sulphur-coloured groimd, growing white under the 

 belly and on the thighs, fore-arms, and throat. 

 Near the dorsal line the spots or rosettes are much 

 more numerous than on the flanks, and the colour 

 of the skin is generally darker, and richer in its 

 suggestions of yeUow. The leopard's head is 

 rounded, somewhat heav\- for the size of the 

 body, and the ears slightly pointed. The tail is 

 usually thick, full, and beautifully and softly 

 furred. 



I wish it to be understood that the foregoing 

 passage more or less correctly describes the low- 

 count^^• leopard, found — ^with luck — upon the 

 banks of the Zambead. In the higher elevations 

 the same animal exists, but possessed of a much 

 thicker, finer, and softer coat. So much is this 

 the case that several attempts have been made, 

 I imderstand, because he wears a sUghtly heavier 

 suit of clothes than his brother of the heated 

 plain, to give him a separate scientific designa- 

 tion, and add one more to the number of local 

 varieties into which this animal has been so 

 foohshly and unnecessarily divided. 



