THE LEOPARD. 6l 



their riders. The elephant shook ofiFthe tiger, and Lieutenant 

 Collet having fired two balls at him, he fell; but, again 

 recovering himself, he made a spring at the lieutenant. Having 

 missed his object, he seized the elephant by the hind leg, 

 and, having received a kick from her, and another ball, he 

 let go his hold, and fell a second time. Supposing that 

 he was now disabled. Collet very rashly dismounted, with the 

 resolution of killing him with his pistols; but the tiger, who 

 had only been crouching to take another spring, flew upon 

 the lieutenant, and caught him in his mouth. The strength 

 and intrepidity of the lieutenant, however, did not forsake 

 him: he immediately fired his pistol into the tiger's body, 

 and, finding that this had no effect, disengaged his arms with 

 all his force, and, directing the other pistol to his heart, he 

 at last destroyed him, after receiving twenty-five severe 

 wovmds. 



The The Leopard, who is also known as the panther. 



Leopard, belongs to Asia and Africa. He is distinguished 

 by the beauty of his coat which is of a rich fawn colour, 

 graduating to white underneath his belly. It is covered with 

 spots or clusters of marks which resemble the form of a rose. 

 He is an agile climber and a terror to goats, sheep, monkeys 

 and all lesser animals, but shows no special hostility to man 

 unless attacked or cornered. 



ij^g Like other members of the cat family the Leopard 



Leopard's shows remarkable tenacity of life. Whether like 



Tenacity of the domestic cat he has nine lives or not, he 



certainly takes a great deal of killing. 



The following account is from the pen of an eye-witness 

 quoted from Captain Brown's "Natural History of Animals". 

 — "I was at Jafiha, at the northern extremity of the Island 

 of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year 1819, when, one 

 morning, my servant called me an hour or two before my 

 usual time, with 'Master, master! people sent for master's 

 dogs — tiger in the town!' There are no real tigers in Ceylon ; 



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