LEOPARDS AND LYNXES. 207 



men have given to the woodcock amongst their feathered 

 game, that is to say, there is attached to the killing of a snow 

 leopard more kudos than the bagging of far bigger game. 

 Naturally much of the value of an ounce's skin depends 

 almost entirely on the conditions under which the bearer 

 lives. His home is high up amongst the snows. Consequently 

 his coat is "almost of a woolly nature, the ground-colour 

 of the upper parts being a pale whitish grey occasionally 

 with a faint yellow tinge passing into pure white beneath. 

 The black spots are much larger than those of the leopard, 

 and over the greater part of the skin form irregular rosettes, 

 with the central area of each generally darker than the ground 

 colour of the fur. During the winter the snow leopard is said 

 to descend the slopes to a height as low as 6,000 feet. 



Felis nebiihsa, or the clouded leopard, is another 

 species even less satisfactorily known than the snow leopard. 

 I am not absolutely certain that it is an inhabitant of China 

 Proper, though it is known along the line of the Himalayas 

 through Bhutan, Sikkim, Assam, Burma, the Malay Penin- 

 sula and so to the islands of the Indian Archipelago. A 

 somewhat different variety with a shorter tail is found in 

 Formosa. But in all probability the south-western corner 

 of China, in the hill districts of Yunnan and along the border 

 line between that province and Burma would, if searched, 

 be found to contain specimens. The largest measurement 

 connected with the clouded leopard gives 6 ft. 6 in. as the 

 length, but that seems to have been. a very exceptional 

 animal, and 5 ft. 6 in to 6 ft. is probably more near the average 

 size. To the Malays the animal is the "tree-tiger." Practically 

 all its life is said to be passed on trees, on the branchesof which 

 it sleeps. We are, however, dependent for most of our inform- 

 ation on native hunters, and these are not always reliable. 



The hunting leopard, or cheetah, differs considerably 

 from the true leopards, so much so that he is put into another 

 category under the name Cyiueluriis jitbatus. His claws are 

 only partially retractile, showing him to be no true cat. His 

 teeth, too, show variation. Everybody who has seen pictures 

 of the cheetah, which name, by the way, simply means 

 "spotted," cannot fail to have noted how thoroughly Nature 

 has endowed him with power for the chase, for though the 

 cheetah naturally likes to get as close to his prey as possible, 

 he is not, like the tiger and leopard, dependent for his dinner 

 on the success of his first rush, but can, and does, run down 

 prey as speedy as the black buck of the Indian plains, against 

 whom, when he has been trained, he is frequently pitted by 

 his British or Indian master. I am claiming him as a mem- 

 ber of the Chinese family on the strength of the fact that he 

 is well known to have been used for hunting by the Tartars 



