THE LEOPARD 189 



vader. On gaining admission, instead of helping 

 himself to the fattest or most tempting inmate, 

 he sets deliberately to work mercilessly to destroy 

 every single member of the family, nor does he 

 hold his murderous teeth and claws until his 

 victims lie at his feet in a lifeless heap. In natural 

 surroundings, however, he contents himself with 

 one victim at a time, which he secures by ambush- 

 ing a game-path or water-hole. Leopards have the 

 same weakness as hons for lapping the quickly 

 flowing blood of newly killed animals, and, as they 

 cUmb trees with cat-like ease and agility, they 

 avail themselves of the comparative security 

 afforded by the branches to deposit therein the 

 remainder of their kills at a good height from the 

 ground. On several occasions I have seen por- 

 tions of the bodies of reedbuck, duiker, and other 

 animals among the branches deposited by leop- 

 ards at the end of a meal, 15 or 18 feet from the 

 ground. These arboreal habits render the hunt- 

 ing of leopards, especially by " sitting up " for 

 them, a matter of no small difficulty ; for whereas 

 terrestrial animals such as the lion are never im- 

 pelled by the presence of danger to look upward, 

 the leopard seems to realise the perils of the 

 machan as keenly as any other, and, in his stealthy, 

 silent approach, appears to advance with one eye 

 on the carcass and the other on the surrounding 

 branches. 



They are usually solitary. Personally, I have 

 never seen more than one leopard at a time, al- 

 though pairs have not infrequently been met with. 

 They are also very silent beasts, giving vent at 



