THE LEOPARD 
FELIS PARDUS 
G F all African animals the leopard is probably the most 
.ubiquitous, as it is an inhabitant of almost every descrip - 
k tion of country to be found in that vast continent. It still 
I lurks in the mountains of the Cape Peninsula, and ranges 
^from thence northwards almost to the very shores of the 
Mediterranean Sea. 
All climates within this area would appear to be equally congenial to 
leopards, since these animals are as numerous in the hot coast lands of 
the equatorial belt as they are on the high plateaux and mountain ranges 
of the interior of the continent. Indeed, given water, an adequate food 
supply, and good cover, leopards can accommodate themselves to almost 
any kind of surroundings; equatorial forests, thick scrubby bush, rocky 
hills, high mountain ranges or beds of reeds. They naturally shun open 
plains devoid of cover, as well as districts where no water is obtainable, 
but during the rainy season leopards often extend their range into parts 
of the country from which they have been excluded through want of water 
during the periods of drought. Enjoying so wide a distribution, and being 
subject to such varying conditions of climate and environment, it is not 
surprising that African leopards should vary very considerably one from 
another in different parts of their range. 
The leopards of Africa have been separated by modern naturalists into 
a number of local races, distinguished from one another by their size and 
the size and pattern of their spots; but, as in every part of Africa in which 
they are found, individual leopards differ greatly in size, as well as in 
the ground colour of their skins and the size and form of their spots, 
and as the two extremes in any one locality are always connected by 
intermediate forms, it will, I think, be as well for the purposes of this 
article, to consider all African leopards as belonging to one highly variable 
species. Except in Abyssinia, where numerous cases have occurred, black 
leopards are seldom met with in Africa; but two perfect examples of this 
melanistic variety have been killed quite lately on the farm of Mr H. H. 
Heatley, near Nairobi, in British East Africa. In their habits and mode of 
life, at any rate, all the African leopards would appear to be identical. 
Though everywhere plentiful in the wilder regions of Africa, leopards 
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