-A4 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



no means close to each other, particularly on the sides ; they hegin to increase in size on the shoulders 

 and the foremost members, and they preserve nearly the same proportion over the whole of the re- 

 mainder of the body, but they decrease in number on the flanks and thighs. The breast and the 

 belly, which are white, are wholly destitute of spots. The tail is yellowish above and whitish under- 

 neath, and the spots are disposed irregularly at its base. These spots, however, towards the middle 

 of the tail, run almost into each other, and form incomplete rings, and at the end of the tail these rings 

 become separate and distinct. The extremity of the tail is white. 



The possession of a large spotted cat, with a disposition naturally mild and gentle, the immediate 

 consequence of its organization, presents a wide field for the professed zoologist, as it presents con- 

 siderable difficulty in its classification. The chittah is in reality not a cat, according to the fullest 

 meaning of the term. Its nails are not sharp, which are the very weapons on which all the real species 

 of cats rely with the greatest confidence, and which they make use of either offensively or defensively 

 in preference to all others ; and the greater the influence which they have upon their character, the 

 more intimate is their relation with the instinct of their preservation. This exposition is so much the 

 better founded as it enables us without much difficulty to establish the intimate relations between the 

 youze and the chittah, which it must be admitted belongs incontestably to the same species as that 

 of Buffbn. The chittahs are natives of Senegal, and they bear a perfect resemblance to the skins 

 which are known in commerce under that name, and from which alone Buffbn established his species. 

 The specific identity of the youze and the chittah is equally well founded and incontestable. The 

 descriptions and figures of the youze, which have been given by Schreber, under the Latin cognomen 

 of Felis jubata, and by Pennant, under Cat hunting ; the details which are to be found in the Asiatic 

 Register relative to the hunting leopards of Tippoo Saib, but more especially, the figure, the notes, 

 and the skins of the chittah which have been transmitted to Europe by M. Alfred Duvancel, set at 

 rest all doubt respecting the identity of the two animals. It may, therefore, be considered that the 

 chittah is to be found both in Asia and Africa, but that it is only in the former country that it is 

 employed in the chase, whilst in the latter, the good qualities of its character and its capacity are not 

 properly appreciated, and that it is only sought after for the value of its skin. 



Barrow, in his first Travels in Africa, speaks of the chittah when he is describing the animal which 

 the Dutch farmers in the vicinitv of the Cape call a leopard ; the " farmers," he says, " give the name 

 of leopard to another animal of the same family, (of the family of the tigers of the mountains and the 

 tigers of the plains,) but it is not so long, although it is thicker, greater, and stronger than those which 

 I have just mentioned. Its colour is cinereous, with small black spots; the neck and the temples are 

 covered with long frizzled hair, similar to that of the mane of a lion. The tail is two feet long, and 

 is spotted half its length from the base, the remainder is annulated. Its face is marked with a broad 

 black line, which extends from the internal corner to the extremity of the throat. We captured a 

 young one, which soon became familiar with us, and played about us like a cat." 



M. Cuvier mentions an animal of this species now in Paris, which is completely tamed, exhibits all 

 the playful antics of our common domestic cat, and, when caressed, purrs in the same manner as the 

 cat ; but subsequent examinations have proved that it is not the animal now known by the name of 

 Chittah, and, therefore, forms a distinct species of itself. 



