THE LEOPARD. 
Felts leopardus. 
Plate IV. 
Tin; present plate illustrates two fine and well-marked varieties ot the Leopard or Panther, tor, although 
various attempts have been made to shew that these names belong to different animals, the matter seems tai 
from being settled, and the best authorities continue to apply them both to the Felts leopardus. the Zoological 
Society’s collection always contains several examples of the Leopard, those here represented were living in 
the Menagerie in 1851. The front figure is that of the Black Leopard, a melanoid variety which is most 
frequent in the Malay Countries, though instances are known of its having been produced in England, in a 
state of captivity. 
The figure in the back-ground is that of a large variety of the Leopard, which is found in Marocco 
and Northern Africa generally. There is at the present moment a very fine example of this animal in the 
Society’s Gardens, presented to the Menagerie by Her Majesty the Queen. 
The Leopard, like many other of its relations of the genus Fells, is rather widely distributed over the 
warmer portions of the Old World, its place in the New World being occupied by the Jaguars (Fells onca ), as 
that of the Lion is by the Puma {Fells concolor). From Java and Malacca the Leopard extends throughout 
British India and the adjoining portions of Southern Asia into Africa, over the whole of which immense 
continent, except the Northern coast region, it is found in greater or less abundance. In the extreme South 
of Africa it is a common animal throughout the Cape Colony, being there dignified by the name of “ Tiger, and 
much dreaded by the farmers on account of the ravages it commits amongst their sheep, and during the 
breeding season, also among their foals and calves. “ Nightly may his low half-smothered growl be heard, 
says Sir W. C. Harris, in liis admirable work on the Wild Animals of Southern Africa, “ as he prowls round 
the fold, and in spite of the haying troops of watch-dogs that are maintained for the protection of the flock, 
he not unfrequently contrives to purloin mutton.” 
“ Viewed in his wild state,” continues the same eloquent writer, “ few animals can surpass the lurking 
Leopard in point of beauty; his brilliant orange and white skin, which shines like silk, being richly studded 
with open rosettes, sometimes of the most intense sable, at others disposed as if a cat had been walking over 
it with her paws tarred. Nor is he less distinguished for elegance sfhd grace. His every motion easy and 
flexile in the highest degree, he bounds among the rocks and woods with an agility truly amazing; now 
stealing along the ground with the silence of a snake, now crouching with his fore paws extended, and his 
spotted head laid betwixt them, while his chequered tail twitches impatiently, and his pale gooseberry eyes 
glare mischievously upon his unsuspecting victim. But the nocturnal depredator is not unfrequently 
outwitted, and being ensnared in a cage constructed of stones and timber, upon the principle of the rat trap, 
is sentenced without trial by judge or jury to be worried by every dog that the country round can contribute. 
For, as no Dutchman chooses to hazard an attack upon the intruder, when at large, unless he he backed by 
some dozen canine coadjutors, it is of course desirable to give these latter a foretaste of the animal s tactics. 
Accidents in the chase are frequent in those districts which abound most in this species, and during my short 
sojourn in the colony, I heard of the occurrence of more than one.” 
The preceding extracts give the observations of the highest authority on the habits of the Leopard. The 
question as to the real diversity of many races and varieties of this animal has been ably discussed by a well- 
known and experienced observer in one of the Bengal Sporting Journals, and the following sentences seem to 
give the gist of his opinion upon this much dilated subject. 
“ As the Leopard has a very extensive geographical distribution, the question arises, do particular races or 
varieties characterize certain regions? Or is the same amount of variation observable everywhere that this 
creature is found ? For more than a quarter of a century 1 have paid attention to this matter, and have seen 
perhaps as many African as Asiatic specimens; but however individuals may vary, in any country, I do not 
believe that the common Pards of India and Africa are to be discriminated; and the same variations which 
may be remarked in Indian are, I think, equally observable in Malayan specimens. They are generally deeper- 
colored in hot countries, and paler in cold regions; and the melanokl variety seems to belong exclusively to the 
former, and to be most frequent in the Malay countries.” 
In opposition to this we may remark that Professor Wagner, the author of the most recent general work 
on Mammalia, considers the Malayan animal, Fells variegata, with its black variety, Fells melas, distinct, differing 
in its longer tail, larger spots, and rather smaller size. We cannot, therefore, consider either this question, 
or that of the identity of the large Maroccan variety with the common Fells leopardus, as yet satisfactorily 
settled. 
