The Leopard and Panther 137 



noticeable in the leopard or cheetah. The skin, which 

 shines like silk, and is of a rich tawny or orange tan above 

 and white underneath, is marked with seven rows of rosettes, 

 each consisting of an assemblage of black spots, in the 

 centre of which the tawny or fulvous ground of the coat 

 shows distinctly through the black. Its extremities are 

 marked with horseshoe-shaped or round black spots. Few 

 animals can surpass the panther in point of beauty, and 

 none in elegance or grace. His every motion is easy and 

 flexible in the highest degree ; he bounds among the rocks 

 and woods with an agility truly surprising — now stealing 

 along the ground with the silence of a snake, now crouch- 

 ing with his fore-paws extended and his head laid between 

 them, while his chequered tail twitches impatiently, and his 

 pale, gooseberry eyes glare mischievously upon his unsus- 

 pecting victim." Captain J. H. Baldwin ("Large and 

 Small Game of Bengal ") writes in much the same strain 

 upon the specific differences between these varieties, and 

 he is at a loss to understand how Dr. Jerdon and Mr. 

 Blyth, Captain Hodgson and Sir Walter Elliot, can regard 

 panthers and leopards as of the same species. The differ- 

 ence between their skulls — that of the leopard's being oval, 

 while the panther's is round — is, he asserts, "of itself 

 conclusive evidence upon this disputed question j " and 

 besides that, " the two animals altogether differ from one 

 another in size and character." 



Technical discussions have been avoided so far as it was 

 possible to do so, but here it seems necessary to say 

 briefly that head-measurements as a basis for classifica- 

 tion, whether among beasts or men, have always failed ; 



