VIII 
THE LEOPARD 
301 
saw the blow of the paw, delivered as quick as light¬ 
ning upon the right haunch, and the gallant little 
buck was on its back, with its throat hopelessly 
throttled in the cheetah’s jaws. 
We were sorry for this termination, as I should 
like to have witnessed the result, had we not dis¬ 
turbed the fight by our presence. The keepers did 
not regard the affair in the same light, as they de¬ 
clared the cheetah might have been injured severely 
by the horns, but that eventually it would have 
killed the black-buck. 
In a couple of days we had killed a number of 
these beautiful animals, but I became tired of the 
sport, as the affair was invariably over in a couple 
of minutes. One thing was certain, the cheetahs 
were first-rate, and there was none of the skulking 
and slinking back, which I had read of as character¬ 
istic of the hunting leopard. 
This style of hunting must naturally depend upon 
the condition of the ground. We had hunted the 
localities that were in favour of the cheetah, when 
scattered bush admitted of a tolerably close approach ; 
but after a couple of days we had scared the black- 
buck to such a degree that they entirely forsook the 
sparse covert, and took to the bare open plain, where 
it was simply impossible to approach them unob¬ 
served. This intensified the pleasure, as hitherto 
the cheetahs had triumphed in almost every hunt. 
I accordingly suggested that we should confine 
our party to three mounted persons and three carts, 
with of course the same number of cheetahs, and 
