220 
CLOSE QUARTERS. 
and they often lie crouched on a low branch ready to drog on 
some unlucky deer or wild hog that ma/ pass under it, 
Coming home one day from shooting in the bush 1 noticed at 
the foot of a tree some very fresh rootings of wild hog and 
said to my man, there must be a pig about here. As I 
spoke 1 heard a rustle in the leaves above me, and the next 
moment a leopard's head appeared level with mine on the 
/ COULD HAVE SLAPPED ITS FACE. 
Stem of the tree. It was so close I could have slapped 
its face, but before I could get my rifle to the shoulder he 
was on the ground and hidden by the jungle. Their tenacity 
of life is very great ; I have known a leopard after remaining 
as if dead for more than half an hour, spring up and tear 
up the grass all round him. On one occasion after knocking 
