LEOPARDUS. 



27 



as it is terrible in its effects. Pennant observes that the distance 

 which the tiger clears in this deadly leap is scarcely credible. In 

 killing large animals, as a horse or buffalo, he seldom tears out the 

 entrails at once, but to prevent interruption drags off the whole 

 carcass to the forest or wood. Neither force, restraint, nor kindness 

 can tame the tiger. Various devices are practised for the destruction 

 of the animal in India, and, except of late, strychnine, which has been 

 used to some purpose, spring bows, box traps, and hunting excursions 

 have done but little towards annihilating it. When once a tiger takes 

 to killing man, Jerdon says, it almost always endeavours to get the 

 same food, being probably easier prey. The tiger is an emblem of 

 power in India. Hyder Ally and Tippoo Sahib had troops, called tiger- 

 soldiers, and the chief ornament of the throne was a tiger's head 

 gorgeous with jewels. 



Leopardus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 363. — Of moderate size; tail 

 long, body spotted simply or in the form of rosettes. Pupil round. 

 Orbit of the skull incomplete behind. 



Leopardus pardus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1867; Jerdon, Mam. of 

 India, p. 97; Murray, Hdbk., ZooL, 8fc., Bind; Gray, Oat. Mam. 

 Br. Mus. Pelis leopardus, F. varia, et F. uncia, Schreb. — The Paed or 

 Panther. 



Colour of the fur deep yellowish fulvous or rufous fawn, with dark 

 spots grouped in rosettes, or several spots partially united into a 

 circular, quadrangular or triangular figure in some skins ; the spots 

 from 12 to 14 lines in diameter. There are also several isolated dark 

 spots on the outside of the limbs. Tail as long as the head and 

 body, its extremity when turned back reaching to the tip of the nose, 

 or in some a little less. Skull 9-25" to 9-5" X 5-62* wide. 



Whether the panther and pard or leopard so called are distinct species 

 is a point yet to be settled. The vernacular names for both animals 

 appear the same, " Chita " being applied indiscriminately to both, 

 and is the most common name by which they are known. Mr. Sterndale, 

 in the " Asian, " (Popular Histroy of Mammalia, &c.) considers them 

 distinct, and proposes the name of " Felis Panthera," a name already 

 assigned by Schreb to the South American Jaguar, {Leopardus onca, 

 Linn. Gray P. Z. S. 1867,) and by Erxl. to the Thibetan Ounce, JJncia 

 urbis, Gray. P. Z. S. 1867. Cuvier separates the panther from the 

 leopard specifically. The panther " La Panthers" he makes the -F'eKs 

 pardus of Linnaeus, and the Pardalis, v UapSakis of the ancients. The 

 panther he describes as yellow above, white beneath, with 6 or 7 

 rows of black spots in the form of roses, i.e., an assemblage of five 

 or six small simple spots on each side. The tail of the length of the 

 body not including the head. Felis Leopardus, Cuvier says, is similar to 

 the. panther, but with ten rows of smaller spots. Temminck once 

 regarded the panther and leopard as varieties of the one species, 

 Felis Leopardus, but in his monograph he has separated them specifically. 

 Bennett and Swainson (1838) touched upon the subject without 

 coming to any decided conclusion. Major Hamilton Smith (in Griff.) 

 says that " the open spots which mark all the panthers have the inner 



