THE LEOPARD. 
91 
inferior station ; and fortunate it is that such is the 
case. Were it not for that degradation in their mental 
faculties, which renders them incapable of employing 
their physical powers in concert with each other, what 
ravages would they not be enabled to commit ? What 
could resist their prodigious and destructive force, if 
that force were accompanied by the sagacity of the dog 
or even of the wolf ? But it has been wisely provided 
that in the same proportion as these beasts advance in 
the accumulation of corporeal means of destruction, 
they should recede in those intellectual qualifications 
which might otherwise be made the means of devas- 
tating the creation, while they are the less necessary 
for their individual preservation. 
Conscious of their own undisputed superiority which 
secures them against the attacks of other animals, they 
never associate together in troops, but each with his 
female partner occupies a solitary den, which is usually 
concealed in the depths of the forest. Hence, when 
pressed by hunger, they issue forth in search of their 
prey, which they rarely attack with open force; but 
stealing on with noiseless tread, or stationing them- 
selves in ambush m such situations as appear suitable 
to their purpose, watch with indefatigable patience the 
approach of their victim. Their motions are peculiarly 
characteristic of their habits and mode of life. Inca- 
pable of long continued speed, their usual gait is slow, 
cautious, and stealthy, with their posterior limbs bent 
beneath them, and their ears distended to catch the 
most trifling noise. Guided by these organs, the inter- 
nal structure of which is highly developed, they trace 
the sound of footsteps at an almost incredible distance, 
and direct themselves towards their prey with unerring 
certainty. In this quest the sense of smell, which they 
possess in a very low degree, affords them but little 
