Chapter II: The Cat Tribe (1)

Though only one species is entirely domesticated, and none of the Cats have flesh edible by man, except perhaps the puma, no group of animals has attracted more interest than this. Containing more than forty species, ranging in size from the ox-devouring tiger or lion to the small wild cats, they are so alike in habit and structure that no one could possibly mistake the type or go far wrong in guessing at the habits of any one of them. They are all flesh-eaters and destroyers of living animals. All have rounded heads, and an extraordinary equipment of teeth and of claws, and of muscles to use them. The blow of the forearm of a lion or tiger is inconceivably powerful, in proportion to its size. A stroke from a tiger's paw has been known to strike off a native's arm from the shoulder and leave it hanging by a piece of skin, and a similar blow from a lion to crush the skull of an ox. The true cats are known by the power to draw back, or "retract," their claws into sheaths of horn, rendering their footsteps noiseless, and keeping these weapons always sharp. The hunting-leopard has only a partial capacity for doing this.

AN UNWILLING PUPIL.

This is one of Herr Hagenbeck s famous performing tigers.]

The characteristics of the Cats and their allies are too well known to need description. We will therefore only mention the chief types of the group, and proceed to give, in the fullest detail which space allows, authentic anecdotes of their life and habits. The tribe includes Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Pumas, Jaguars, a large number of so-called Tiger-cats (spotted and striped), Wild Cats, Domestic Cats, and Lynxes. The Hunting-leopard, or Cheeta, stands in a sub-group by itself, as does the Fossa, the only large carnivore of Madagascar. This closes the list of the most cat-like animals. The next links in the chain are formed by the Civets and Genets, creatures with more or less retractile claws, and long, bushy tails; the still less cat-like Binturong, a creature with a prehensile tail; and the Mongooses and Ichneumons, more and more nearly resembling the weasel tribe.

THE LION.

Recent intrusions for railways, sport, discovery, and war into Central and East Africa have opened up new lion countries, and confirmed, in the most striking manner, the stories of the power, the prowess, and the dreadful destructiveness to man and beast of this king of the Carnivora. At present it is found in Persia, on the same rivers where Nimrod and the Assyrian kings made its pursuit their royal sport; in Gujerat, where it is nearly extinct, though in General Price's work on Indian game written before the middle of the last century it is stated that a cavalry officer killed eighty lions in three years; and in Africa, from Algeria to the Bechuana country. It is especially common in Somaliland, where the modern lion-hunter mainly seeks his sport. On the Uganda Railway, from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, lions are very numerous and dangerous. In Rhodesia and the Northern Transvaal they have killed hunters, railway officials, and even our soldiers near Komati Poort. It has been found that whole tracts of country are still often deserted by their inhabitants from fear of lions, and that the accounts of their ravages contained in the Old Testament, telling how Samaria was almost deserted a second time from this cause, might be paralleled to-day.

[_Notting Hill._

LIONESS AROUSED.

The pose of the animal here shows attention, but not anger or fear.]

THE AFRICAN LION.

BY F. C. SELOUS.

When, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, Europeans first settled at the Cape of Good Hope, the lion's roar was probably to be heard almost nightly on the slopes of Table Mountain, since a quaint entry in the Diary of Van Riebeck, the first Dutch governor of the Cape, runs thus: "This night the lions roared as if they would take the fort by storm"--the said fort being situated on the site of the city now known as Cape Town.

At that date there can be little doubt that, excepting in the waterless deserts and the dense equatorial forests, lions roamed over the whole of the vast continent of Africa from Cape Agulhas to the very shore of the Mediterranean Sea; nor was their range very seriously curtailed until the spread of European settlements in North and South Africa, and the acquisition of firearms by the aboriginal inhabitants of many parts of the country, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, steadily denuded large areas of all wild game.

[_Algiers._

ALGERIAN LIONESS.

This lioness, sitting under an olive-tree, was actually photographed in the Soudan by the intrepid M. Geiser.]

As the game vanished, the lions disappeared too; for although at first they preyed to a large extent on the domestic flocks and herds which gradually replaced the wild denizens of the once-uninhabited plains, this practice brought them into conflict with the white colonists or native herdsmen armed with weapons of precision, before whom they rapidly succumbed.

[_Hamburg._

A PERFORMING LION.

Lions, it would seem, are capable of being taught almost anything, even tricycle-riding.]

To-day lions are still to be found wherever game exists in any quantity, and their numbers will be in proportion to those of the wild animals on which they prey.

The indefinite increase of lions must be checked by some unknown law of nature, otherwise they would have become so numerous in the sparsely inhabited or altogether uninhabited parts of Africa, that they would first have exterminated all the game on which they had been wont to prey, and would then have had to starve or to have eaten one another. But such a state of things has never been known to occur; and whenever Europeans have entered a previously unexplored and uninhabited tract of country in Africa, and have found it teeming with buffaloes, zebras, and antelopes, they have always found lions in such districts very plentiful indeed, but never in such numbers as to seriously diminish the abundance of the game upon which they depended for food.

[_Aberdeen._

LIONESS AND CUB.

Lion cubs thrive both in Dublin and Amsterdam, but not so well at the London Zoo.]

It is easy to understand that the increase of a herd of herbivorous animals would be regulated by the amount of the food-supply available, as well as constantly checked by the attacks of the large carnivora, such as lions, leopards, cheetas, hyænas, and wild dogs; but I have never been able to comprehend what has kept within bounds the inordinate increase of lions and other carnivorous animals in countries where for ages past they have had an abundant food-supply, and at the same time, having been almost entirely unmolested by human beings, have had no enemies. Perhaps such a state of things does not exist at the present day, but there are many parts of Africa where such conditions have existed from time immemorial up to within quite recent years.

Since lions were once to be found over the greater portion of the vast continent of Africa, it is self-evident that these animals are able to accommodate themselves to great variations of climate and surroundings; and I myself have met with them, close to the sea, in the hot and sultry coastlands of South-east Africa; on the high plateau of Mashonaland, where at an altitude of 6,000 feet above sea-level the winter nights are cold and frosty; amongst the stony hills to the east of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi; and in the swamps of the Chobi. In the great reed-beds of the latter river a certain number of lions appeared to live constantly, preying on buffaloes and lechwe antelopes. I often heard them roaring at nights in these swamps, and I once saw two big male lions wading slowly across an open space between two beds of reeds in water nearly a foot in depth.

[_Florence._

A YOUNG LIONESS.

The sole of the hind foot shows the soft pads on which the Cats noiselessly approach their prey.]

Although there are great individual differences in lions as regards size, general colour of coat, and more particularly in the length, colour, and profuseness of the mane with which the males are adorned, yet as these differences occur in every part of Africa where lions are met with, and since constant varieties with one fixed type of mane living by themselves and not interbreeding with other varieties do not exist anywhere, modern zoologists are, I think, now agreed that there is only one species of lion, since in any large series of wild lion skins, made in any particular district of Africa or Asia, every gradation will be found between the finest-maned specimens and those which are destitute of any mane at all. Several local races have, however, been recently described by German writers.

In the hot and steamy coastlands of tropical Africa lions usually have short manes, and never, I believe, attain the long silky black manes sometimes met with on the high plateaux of the interior. However, there is, I believe, no part of Africa where all or even the majority of male lions carry heavy manes, the long hair of which does not as a rule cover more than the neck and chest, with a tag of varying length and thickness extending from the back of the neck to between the shoulder-blades. Lions with very full black manes, covering the whole shoulders, are rare anywhere, but more likely to be encountered on the high plateaux, where the winter nights are extremely cold, than anywhere else. In such cases, in addition to the tufts of hair always found on the elbows and in the armpits of lions with fair-sized manes, there will probably be large tufts of hair in each flank just where the thighs join the belly; but I have never yet seen the skin of a lion shot within the last thirty years with the whole belly covered with long, thick hair, as may constantly be observed in lions kept in captivity in the menageries of Europe. There is, however, some evidence to show that, when lions existed on the high plains of the Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony, where the winter nights are much colder than in the countries farther north where lions may still be encountered, certain individuals of the species developed a growth of long hair all over the belly, as well as an extraordinary luxuriance of mane on the neck and shoulders.

[_Hamburg._

A HAPPY FAMILY.

Here is a group of animals and their keeper from Herr Hagenbeck's Thierpark. The animal in front is a cross between a lion and a tigress; he lives on quite friendly terms with his keeper, and also with lions, tigers, and leopards, as seen in the photograph.]

[_Hamburg._

A CROSS BETWEEN LION AND TIGRESS.

This unique photograph shows a remarkable hybrid and its proud parents. The father (on the right) is a lion, and the mother (on the left) a tigress. The offspring (in the centre) is a fine, large male, now four years old; it is bigger than an average-sized lion or tiger.]

From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that wild lions, having as a rule much less luxuriant manes than many examples of their kind to be seen in European menageries, are ordinarily not so majestic and dignified in appearance as many of their caged relatives. On the other hand, the wild lion is a much more alert and active animal than a menagerie specimen, and when in good condition is far better built and more powerful-looking, being free from all appearance of lankiness and weakness in the legs, and having strong, well-formed hindquarters. The eyes of the menagerie lion, too, look brown and usually sleepy, whilst those of the wild animal are yellow, and extraordinarily luminous even after death. When wounded and standing at bay, with head held low between his shoulders, growling hoarsely, and with twitching tail, even if he is not near enough to be observed very closely, a lion looks a very savage and dangerous animal; but should he be wounded in such a way as to admit of a near approach--perhaps by a shot that has paralysed his hindquarters--his flaming eyes will seem to throw out sparks of living fire.

[_Berlin._

A HUNGRY LION.

Notice that the mane, as in most wild lions, is very scanty.]

[_Hamburg._

LIONESS AND TIGER.

The straightness of the lioness's tail is here shown. It is not in the least like that of the tiger or of the cat.]

Speaking generally, there is little or no danger in meeting a lion or lions in the daytime. Even in parts of the country where firearms are unknown, and where the natives seldom or never interfere with them, these animals seem to have an instinctive fear of man, and even when encountered at the carcase of an animal freshly killed, and at a time when they may be supposed to be hungry, they will almost invariably retreat before the unwelcome presence, sometimes slowly and sulkily, but in districts where much hunting with firearms has been going on at a very rapid pace. However, I have known of two cases of Europeans mounted on horseback having been attacked by lions in broad daylight, and Dr. Livingstone mentions a third. In one of the instances which came within my own knowledge, a lion sprang at a Boer hunter as he was riding slowly along, carrying an elephant-gun in his right hand and followed by a string of natives on foot. The lion attacked from the left side, and with its right paw seized my friend from behind by the right side of his face and neck, inflicting deep gashes with its sharp claws, one of which cut right through his cheek and tore out one of his teeth. My friend was pulled from his horse, but, clutching the loosely girthed saddle tightly with his knees, it twisted round under the horse's belly before he fell to the ground. Instead of following up its success, the lion, probably scared by the shouting of the Kaffirs, trotted away for a short distance, and then turned and stood looking at the dismounted hunter, who, never having lost his presence of mind, immediately shot it dead with his heavy old muzzle-loading elephant-gun. Besides these three instances of Europeans having been attacked in the daytime by lions, I have known of a certain number of natives having been killed in broad daylight. Such incidents are, however, by no means every-day occurrences, and, speaking generally, it may be said that the risk of molestation by lions in Africa during daylight is very small. It is by night that lions roam abroad with stealthy step in search of prey; and at such times they are often, when hungry, incredibly bold and daring. I have known them upon several occasions to enter a hunter's camp, and, regardless of fires, to seize oxen and horses and human beings.

During the year following the first occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, a great deal of damage was done by lions, which could not resist the attractions of the settlers' live stock. For the first few months I kept as accurate an account as I could of the number of horses, donkeys, oxen, sheep, goats, and pigs which were killed by lions, and it soon mounted up to over 200 head. During the same time several white men were also mauled by lions, and one unfortunate man named Teale was dragged from beneath the cart, where he was sleeping by the side of a native driver, and at once killed and eaten. Several of the horses were killed inside rough shelters serving as stables. In the following year (1891) over 100 pigs were killed in one night by a single lioness. These pigs were in a series of pens, separated one from another, but all under one low thatched roof. The lioness forced her way in between two poles, and apparently was unable, after having satisfied her hunger, to find her way out again, and, becoming angry and frightened, wandered backwards and forwards through the pens, killing almost all the pigs, each one with a bite at the back of the head or neck. This lioness, which had only eaten portions of two young pigs, made her escape before daylight, but was killed with a set gun the next night by the owner of the pigs.

[_Berlin._

TIGRESS.

Were the grass seen here the normal height of that in the Indian jungles, the upright lines would harmonize with the stripes, and render the tiger almost invisible.]

When lions grow old, they are always liable to become man-eaters. Finding their strength failing them, and being no longer able to hunt and pull down large antelopes or zebras, they are driven by hunger to killing small animals, such as porcupines, and even tortoises, or they may visit a native village and catch a goat, or kill a child or woman going for water; and finding a human being a very easy animal to catch and kill, an old lion which has once tasted human flesh will in all probability continue to be a man-eater until he is killed. On this subject, in his "Missionary Travels," Dr. Livingstone says: "A man-eater is invariably an old lion; and when he overcomes his fear of man so far as to come to villages for goats, the people remark, 'His teeth are worn; he will soon kill men.' They at once acknowledge the necessity of instant action, and turn out to kill him." It is the promptness with which measures are taken by the greater part of the natives of Southern Africa to put an end to any lion which may take to eating men that prevents these animals as a rule from becoming the formidable pests which man-eating tigers appear to be in parts of India. But man-eating lions in Africa are not invariably old animals. One which killed thirty-seven human beings in 1887, on the Majili River, to the north-west of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, was, when at last he was killed, found to be an animal in the prime of life; whilst the celebrated man-eaters of the Tsavo River, in East Africa, were also apparently strong, healthy animals. These two man-eating lions caused such consternation amongst the Indian workmen on the Uganda Railway that the work of construction was considerably retarded, the helpless coolies refusing to remain any longer in a country where they were liable to be eaten on any night by a man-eating lion. Both these lions were at last shot by one of the engineers on the railway (Mr. J. H. Patterson), but not before they had killed and devoured twenty-eight Indian coolies and an unknown number of native Africans.

TIGER CUB.

Note the great development of the legs and paws.]

[_Dundee._

A ROYAL TIGER.

This is an old Bengal Tiger, with the smooth, short coat grown in that hot climate.]

THE TIGER.

TIGERS are the "type animal" of Asia. They are found nowhere else. Lions were inhabitants, even in historic times, of Europe, and are still common on the Euphrates and in parts of Persia, just as they were when the Assyrian kings shot them with arrows from their hunting-chariots. They survived in Greece far later than the days when story says that Hercules slew the Nemean lion in the Peloponnesus, for the baggage-animals of Xerxes' army of invasion were attacked by lions near Mount Athos. But the tiger never comes, and never did come in historic times, nearer to Europe than the Caucasian side of the Caspian Sea. On the other hand, they range very far north. All our tiger-lore is Indian. There is scarcely a story of tigers to be found in English books of sport which deals with the animal north of the line of the Himalaya. These Chinese northern tigers and the Siberian tigers are far larger than those of India. They have long woolly coats, in order to resist the cold. Their skins are brought to London in hundreds every year to the great fur-sales. But the animals themselves we never see. The present writer was informed by a friend that in the Amur Valley he shot three of these tigers in a day, putting them up in thick bush-scrub by the aid of dogs.

[_Florence._

A TIGER BEFORE SLEEPING.

Tigers, when about to sleep, sit in this position; when more drowsy, they lie down or roll over on their backs.]

The ROYAL BENGAL TIGER, so called, and very properly called in the old books of natural history, is a different and far more savage beast. It is almost _invariably_ a ferocious savage, fierce by nature, never wishing to be otherwise than a destroyer--of beasts mainly, but often of men. Compared with the lion, it is far longer, but rather lighter, for the lion is more massive and compact. "A well-grown tigress," says Sir Samuel Baker, "may weigh on an average 240 lbs. live weight. A very fine tiger may weigh 440 lbs., but if fat the same tiger would weigh 500 lbs. There may be tigers which weigh 50 lbs. more than this; but I speak according to my experience. I have found that a tiger of 9 feet 8 inches is about 2 inches above the average. The same skin may be _stretched_ to measure 10 feet. A tiger in the Zoological Gardens is a long, lithe creature with little flesh. Such a specimen affords a poor example of this grand animal in its native jungles, with muscles in their full, ponderous development from continual exertion in nightly travels over long distances, and in mortal struggles when wrestling with its prey. A well-fed tiger is by no means a slim figure. On the contrary, it is exceedingly bulky, broad in the shoulders, back, and loins, and with an extraordinary girth of limbs, especially in the forearms and wrists."

This ponderous, active, and formidably armed creature is, as might be expected, able to hold its own wherever Europeans do not form part of the regular population. In India the peasants are quite helpless even against a cattle-killing tiger in a populous part of the country. In the large jungles, and on the islands at the mouths of the great rivers, the tigers have things all their own way. Things are no better in the Far East. A large peninsula near Singapore is said to have been almost abandoned by its cultivators lately, owing to the loss of life caused by the tigers. In the populous parts of India the tiger is far more stealthy than in the out-of-the-way districts. It only hunts by night; and after eating a part of the animal killed, moves off to a distance, and does not return. Otherwise the regular habit is to return to the kill just at or after dusk, and finish the remainder. Its suspicions seem quite lulled to sleep after dark. Quite recently a sportsman sat up to watch for a tiger at a water-hole. It was in the height of the Indian hot season, when very little water was left. All the creatures of that particular neighbourhood were in the habit of coming to drink at one good pool still left in the rocky bed of the river. There the tigers came too. The first night they did not come until all the other creatures--hog, deer, peacocks, and monkeys--had been down to drink. They then came so softly over the sand that the gunner in waiting did not hear them pass. His first knowledge that they were there was due to the splashing they made as they entered the water. It was quite dark, and he felt not a little nervous, for the bush on which he was seated on a small platform was only some 10 feet high. He heard the two tigers pass him, not by their footsteps, but by the dripping of the water as it ran off their bodies on to the sand. Next night they came again. This time, though it was dark, he shot one in a very ingenious manner. The two tigers walked into the water, and apparently lay down or sat down in it, with their heads out. They only moved occasionally, lapping the water, but did not greatly disturb the surface. On this was reflected a bright star from the sky above. The sportsman put the sight of the rifle on the star, and kept it up to his shoulder. Something obliterated the star, and he instantly fired. The "something" was the tiger's head, which the bullet duly hit.

[_Parson's Green._

A HALF-GROWN TIGER CUB.

Tigers "grow to their head," like children. The head of a half-grown cub is as long, though not so broad, as that of the adult.]

[_Florence._

TIGERS IN ITALY.

These tigers were photographed in Turin. Italy was the first European country to which these animals were brought from the East.]

The hill-tigers of India are, or were, much more given to hunting by day than the jungle-tigers. In the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India the late General Douglas Hamilton said that before night the tigers were already about hunting, and that in the shade of evening it was dangerous to ride on a pony--not because the tigers wished to kill the rider, but because they might mistake the pony and its rider for a sambar deer. He was stalked like this more than once. Often, when stalking sambar deer and ibex by day, he saw the tigers doing the same, or after other prey. "My brother Richard," he writes, "was out after a tiger which the hillmen reported had killed a buffalo about an hour before. He saw the tiger on first getting to the ground, and the tiger had seen him. It was lying out in the open watching the buffalo, and shuffled into the wood, and would not come out again. Next morning, when we got to the ground, the tiger was moving from rock to rock, and had dragged the body into a nullah.... We were upon the point of starting home when we observed a number of vultures coming down to the carcase. The vultures began to collect in large numbers on the opposite hill. I soon counted fifty; but they would not go near the buffalo. Then some crows, bolder than the rest, flew down, and made a great row over their meal. All of a sudden they all flew up, and I made certain it was the tiger. Then my brother fired, and there he was, shot right through the brain, lying just above the buffalo. He had been brought down by the noise the crows were making. Upon driving the _sholas_ (small woods on these hills), tigers were often put out. Sometimes they availed themselves of the drive to secure food for themselves. A wood was being driven, when a tremendous grunting was heard, and out rushed an old boar, bristling and savage. B---- was about to raise his rifle, when a growl like thunder stopped him, and a great tiger with one spring cleared the nullah, and alighted on the back of the old boar. Such a battle then took place that, what with the growls of the tiger and the squeals of the boar, one might believe oneself in another world. I thought of nothing but of how to kill one or the other, or both; so, as they were rolling down over and over, about fifty yards from me on the open hillside, I let fly both barrels. For a second or two the noise went on; then the tiger jumped off, and the boar struggled into the nullah close by. The tiger pulled up, and coolly stared at us without moving; but his courage seemed to fail him, and he sprang into the nullah and disappeared."

[_Hamburg._

A LEOPARD-PUMA HYBRID.

This is a photograph from life of a very rare hybrid. The animals' father was a puma, its mother a leopard. It is now dead, and may be seen stuffed in Mr. Rothschild's Museum at Tring.]

[_North Finchley._

LEOPARDS.

A pair of leopards, one spotted, the other black. Black leopards may be the offspring of the ordinary spotted form; they are generally much more savage.]

In most parts of India tigers are now scarce and shy, except in the preserves of the great rajas, and the dominions of some mighty and pious Hindu potentates, such as the Maharaja of Jeypur, who, being supposed to be descended from a Hindu god, allows no wild animals to be killed. There the deer and pig are so numerous that tigers are welcome to keep them down. But the Sunderbunds, unwholesome islands at the Ganges mouth, still swarm with them. So does the Malay Peninsula.

Mr. J. D. Cobbold shot a tiger in Central Asia in a swamp so deep in snow and so deadly cold that he dared not stay for fear of being frozen to death. Tigers sometimes wander as far west as the Caucasus near the Caspian. The farther north, the larger your tiger, is the rule. The biggest ever seen in Europe was a Siberian tiger owned by Herr Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, and the largest known skin and skull is from the Far North. The skin is 13 feet 6 inches from the nose to the end of the tail. The largest Indian tiger-skin, from one killed by the Maharaja of Cuch Behar, measures 11 feet 7 inches.

LEOPARDS.

Less in size, but even more ferocious, the LEOPARD has a worse character than the tiger. Living mainly in trees, and very nocturnal, this fierce and dangerous beast is less often seen than far rarer animals. It is widely spread over the world, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Atlas Mountains, and from Southern China to the Black Sea, where it is sometimes met with in the Caucasus. There seems to be no legend of its presence in Greece, Italy, or Spain; but it was quite common in Asia Minor; and Cicero, when governor of Cilicia, was plagued by an aristocratic young friend in Rome to send him leopards to exhibit in a fête he was giving.

Any one who has frequented the Zoo for any time must have noticed the difference in size and colour between leopards from different parts of the world. On some the ground-colour is almost white, in others a clear nut-brown. Others are jet-black. Wherever they live, they are cattle thieves, sheep thieves, and dog thieves. Though not formidable in appearance, they are immensely strong. Sometimes one will turn man-eater. Both in India and lately in Africa cases have been known where they have "set up" in this line as deliberately as any tiger. They have four or five young at a birth, which may often be kept tame for some time and are amusing pets. But the following plain story shows the danger of such experiments. At Hong-kong an English merchant had a tame leopard, which was brought into the room by a coolie for the guests to see at a dinner party. Excited by the smell of food, it refused to go out when one of the ladies, who did not like its looks, wished for it to be removed. The man took hold of its collar and began to haul it out. It seized him by the neck, bit it through, and in a minute the coolie was dying, covered with blood, on the dining-room floor!

[_Wishaw, N.B._

A YOUNG LEOPARD

The leopard cub is far more cat-like in appearance than the young tiger or lion.]

The Chinese leopard ranges as far north as the Siberian tiger, and, like the latter, seems to grow larger the farther north it is found. The colour of these northern leopards is very pale, the spots large, and the fur very long. At the March fur-sales of the present year, held at the stores of Sir Charles Lampson, there were Siberian leopard-skins as large as those of a small tiger.

_ [_Highbury._

SNOW-LEOPARD, OR OUNCE.

This is a striking portrait of a very beautiful animal. Note the long bushy tail, thick coat, and large eyes.]

Leopards are essentially tree-living and nocturnal animals. Sleeping in trees or caves by day, they are seldom disturbed. They do an incredible amount of mischief among cattle, calves, sheep, and dogs, being especially fond of killing and eating the latter. They seize their prey by the throat, and cling with their claws until they succeed in breaking the spine or in strangling the victim. The largest leopards are popularly called PANTHERS. In India they sometimes become man-eaters, and are always very dangerous. They have a habit of feeding on putrid flesh; this makes wounds inflicted by their teeth or claws liable to blood-poisoning. Nothing in the way of prey comes amiss to them, from a cow in the pasture to a fowl up at roost. "In every country," says Sir Samuel Baker, "the natives are unanimous in saying that the leopard is more dangerous than the lion or tiger. Wherever I have been in Africa, the natives have declared that they had no fear of a lion, provided they were not hunting, for it would not attack unprovoked, but that a leopard was never to be trusted. I remember when a native boy, accompanied by his grown-up brother, was busily employed with others in firing the reeds on the opposite bank of a small stream. Being thirsty and hot, the boy stooped down to drink, when he was immediately seized by a leopard. His brother, with admirable aim, hurled his spear at the leopard while the boy was in his jaws. The point separated the vertebræ of the neck, and the leopard fell stone-dead. The boy was carried to my hut, but there was no chance of recovery. The fangs had torn open the chest and injured the lungs. These were exposed to view through the cavity of the ribs. He died the same night."

In the great mountain-ranges of Central Asia the beautiful SNOW-LEOPARD is found. It is a large creature, with thick, woolly coat, and a long tail like a fur boa. The colour is white, clouded with beautiful grey, like that of an Angora cat. The edges of the cloudings and spots are marked with black or darker grey. The eyes are very large, bluish grey or smoke-coloured. It lives on the wild sheep, ibex, and other mountain animals. In captivity it is far the tamest and gentlest of the large carnivora, not excepting the puma. Unlike the latter, it is a sleepy, quiet animal, like a domestic cat. The specimen shown here belonged to a lady in India, who kept it for some time as a pet. It was then brought to the Zoological Gardens, where it was more amiable and friendly than most cats. The writer has entered its cage with the keeper, stroked it, and patted its head, without in the least ruffling its good-temper. The heat of the lion-house did not suit it, and it died of consumption.

[_Berlin._

CHEETA.

A cheeta is a hunting-leopard; this one is a particularly large specimen. The cheetas are dealt with later on in this chapter.]

[_Aberdeen._

JAGUAR.

The largest and strongest of the Cats of the New World. A South American species.]

THE NEW WORLD CATS.

The cats, great and small, of the New World resemble those of the Old, though not quite so closely as the caribou, wapiti deer, and moose of the northern forests resemble the reindeer, red deer, and elk of Europe. They are like, but with a difference. The Jaguar and the Ocelot are respectively larger and far more beautiful than their counterparts, the leopard and serval cats. But the Puma, the one medium-sized feline animal which is unspotted, is something unique. The jaguar and puma are found very far south in South America; and though the jaguar is really a forest animal, it seems to have wandered out on to the Pampas of Argentina, perhaps attracted by the immense numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses on these plains.

PUMA.

A puma in the act of lying down, like a domestic cat.]

THE JAGUAR.

The JAGUAR is as savage as it is formidable, but does not often attack men. Its headquarters are the immense forests running from Central America to Southern Brazil; and as all great forests are little inhabited, the jaguar is seldom encountered by white men. By the banks of the great rivers it is semi-aquatic; it swims and climbs with equal ease, and will attack animals on board boats anchored in the rivers. As there are few animals of great size in these forests, its great strength is not often seen exercised, as is that of the lion; but it is the personification of concentrated force, and its appearance is well worth studying from that point of view. The spots are larger and squarer than in the leopard, the head ponderous, the forearms and feet one mass of muscle, knotted under the velvet skin. On the Amazons it draws its food alike from the highest tree-tops and the river-bed; in the former it catches monkeys in the branches, fish in the shallows of the rivers, and scoops out turtles' eggs from the sandbanks. Humboldt, who visited these regions when the white population was scarce, declared that 4,000 jaguars were killed annually, and 2,000 skins exported from Buenos Ayres alone. It was clearly common on the Pampas in his day, and made as great havoc among the cattle and horses as it does to-day.

THE PUMA.

[_Berlin._

FEMALE PUMA.

This shows a puma alert and vigilant, with ears pricked forward.]

The PUMA is a far more interesting creature. It is found from the mountains in Montana, next the Canadian boundary, to the south of Patagonia. Yankee stories of its ferocity may have some foundation; but the writer believes there is no recorded instance of the northern puma attacking man unprovoked, though in the few places where it now survives it kills cattle-calves and colts. It is relentlessly hunted with dogs, treed, and shot. As to the puma of the southern plains and central forests, the natives, whether Indians or Gauchos, agree with the belief, steadily handed down from the days of the first Spanish conquest, that the puma is the one wild cat which is naturally friendly to man. The old Spaniards called it _amigo del Cristiano_ (the Christian's friend); and Mr. Hudson, in "The Naturalist in La Plata," gives much evidence of this most curious and interesting tendency: "It is notorious that where the puma is the only large beast of prey it is perfectly safe for a small child to go out and sleep on the plain.... The puma is always at heart a kitten, taking unmeasured delight in its frolics; and when, as often happens, one lives alone in the desert, it will amuse itself for hours fighting mock battles or playing hide-and-seek with imaginary companions, or lying in wait and putting all its wonderful strategy in practice to capture a passing butterfly." From Azara downwards these stories have been told too often not to be largely true; and in old natural histories, whose writers believed the puma was a terrible man-eater, they also appear as "wonderful escapes." One tells how a man put his _poncho_, or cloak, over his back when crawling up to get a shot at some duck, and felt something heavy on the end of it. He crept from under it, and there was a puma sitting on it, which did not offer to hurt him.

[_Berlin._

OCELOT.

Note the elongated spots, and their arrangement in chains.]

As space forbids further quotation from Mr. Hudson's experiences, which should be read, the writer will only add one anecdote which was told him by Mr. Everard im Thurn, C.B., formerly an official in British Guiana. He was going up one of the big rivers in his steam-launch, and gave a passage to an elderly and respectable Cornish miner, who wanted to go up to a gold-mine. The visitor had his meals on the boat, but at night went ashore with the men and slung his hammock between two trees, leaving the cabin to his host. One morning two of the Indian crew brought the miner's hammock on board with a good deal of laughing and talking. Their master asked what the joke was, whereupon, pointing to the trees whence they had unslung the hammock, one said, "Tiger sleep with old man last night." They were quite in earnest, and pointed out a hollow and marks on the leaves, which showed that a puma had been lying _just under the man's hammock_. When asked if he had noticed anything in the night, he said, "Only the frogs croaking wakened me up." The croaking of the frogs was probably the hoarse purring of the friendly puma enjoying his proximity to a sleeping man. Mr. Hudson quotes a case in which four pumas played round and leapt over a person camping out on the Pampas. He watched them for some time, and then went to sleep! Many of those brought to this country come with their tempers ruined by ill-treatment and hardship; but a large proportion are as tame as cats. Captain Marshall had one at Marlow which used to follow him on a chain and watch the boats full of pleasure-seekers at the lock.

The puma is always a beautiful creature,--the fur cinnamon-coloured, tinged with gold; the belly and chest white; the tail long, full, and round. Though friendly to man, it is a desperate cattle-killer, and particularly fond of horse-flesh, so much so that it has been suggested that the indigenous wild horses of America were destroyed by the puma.

There are two other cats of the Pampas--the GRASS-CAT, not unlike our wild cat in appearance and habits, and the WOOD-CAT, or Geoffroy's Cat. It is a tabby, and a most elegant creature, of which there is a specimen, at the time of writing, in the London Zoo.

THE OCELOT.

In the forest region is also found the most beautiful of the medium-sized cats. This is the OCELOT, which corresponds somewhat to the servals, but is not the least like a lynx, as the servals are. It is entirely a tree-cat, and lives on birds and monkeys. The following detailed description of its coloration appeared in "Life at the Zoo":--

"Its coat, with the exception perhaps of that of the clouded leopard of Sumatra, marks the highest development of ornament among four-footed animals. The Argus pheasant alone seems to offer a parallel to the beauties of the ocelot's fur, especially in the development of the wonderful ocelli, which, though never reaching in the beast the perfect cup-and-ball ornament seen on the wings of the bird, can be traced in all the early stages of spots and wavy lines, so far as the irregular shell-shaped rim and dot on the feet, sides, and back, just as in the subsidiary ornament of the Argus pheasant's feathers. Most of the ground-tint of the fur is smoky-pearl colour, on which the spots develop from mere dots on the legs and speckles on the feet and toes to large egg-shaped ocelli on the flanks. There are also two beautiful pearl-coloured spots on the back of each ear, like those which form the common ornaments of the wings of many moths."

[_Berlin._

OCELOT FROM CENTRAL AMERICA.

The ocelot can be tamed and almost domesticated if taken young, and is occasionally kept as a pet by the forest Indians.]

The nose is pink; the eye large, convex, and translucent.

A tame ocelot described by Wilson, the American naturalist, was most playful and affectionate, but when fed with flesh was less tractable. It jumped on to the back of a horse in the stable, and tried to curl up on its hindquarters. The horse threw the ocelot off and kicked it, curing it of any disposition to ride. On seeing a horse, the ocelot always ran off to its kennel afterwards. When sent to England, it caught hold of and threw down a child of four years old, whom it rolled about with its paws without hurting it.

OTHER WILD CATS.

A handsome leopard-like animal is the CLOUDED LEOPARD. It is the size of a small common leopard, but far gentler in disposition. Its fur is not spotted, but marked with clouded patches, outlined in grey and olive-brown. Its skin is among the most beautiful of the Cats. It is found in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Formosa, and along the foot of the Himalaya from Nepal to Assam. Writing of two which he kept, Sir Stamford Raffles said: "No kitten could be more good-tempered. They were always courting intercourse with persons passing by, and in the expression of their countenance showed the greatest delight when noticed, throwing themselves on their backs, and delighting in being tickled and rubbed. On board ship there was a small dog, which used to play around the cage with the animal. It was amusing to watch the tenderness and playfulness with which the latter came in contact with its smaller-sized companion." Both specimens were procured from the banks of the Bencoolin River, in Sumatra. They are generally found near villages, and are not dreaded by the natives, except in so far that they destroy their poultry.

CLOUDED LEOPARD.

It shares with the ocelot the first place among the highly ornamented cats.]

FISHING-CAT.

This wild cat haunts the sides of rivers, and is an expert at catching fish.]

MARBLED CAT.

Another beautifully marked cat. The tail is spotted and very long, the marbled markings being on the body only.]

[_Berlin._

GOLDEN CAT.

Sumatra is the home of this very beautifully coloured cat. The general tint is that of gold-stone. Sometimes the belly is pure white.]

The number of smaller leopard-cats and tiger-cats is very great. They fall, roughly, into three groups: those which are yellow and spotted, those which are grey and spotted, and those which are grey and striped, or "whole-coloured." There is no wholly grey wild cat, but several sandy-coloured species. All live on birds and small mammals, and probably most share the tame cat's liking for fish. Among the grey-and-spotted cats are the MOTTLED CAT of the Eastern Himalaya and Straits Settlements and islands; the TIBETIAN TIGER-CAT; the FISHING-CAT of India and Ceylon, which is large enough to kill lambs, but lives much on fish and large marsh-snails; GEOFFROY'S CAT, an American species; the LEOPARD-CAT of Java and Japan, which seems to have grey fur in Japan and a fulvous leopard-like skin in India, where it is also called the TIGER-CAT; and the smallest of all wild cats, the little RUSTY-SPOTTED CAT of India. This has rusty spots on a grey ground. "I had a kitten brought to me," says Dr. Jerdon of the species, "when very young. It became quite tame, and was the delight and admiration of all who saw it. When it was about eight months old, I introduced the fawn of a gazelle into the room where it was. The little creature flew at it the moment it saw it, seized it by the nape of the neck, and was with difficulty taken off." Of the whole-coloured wild cats--which include the BAY CAT, the American PAMPAS-CAT, PALLAS' CAT of Tibet and India--the most beautiful is the GOLDEN CAT of Sumatra, one of which is now in the Zoological Gardens. It has a coat the colour of gold-stone. The nose is pink, the eyes large and topaz-coloured, the cheeks striped with white, and the under-parts and lower part of the tail pure white.

PAMPAS-CAT.

Note the likeness of the thick tail and barred legs to our English wild cat. "Inexpressibly savage in disposition" (Hudson).]

EYRA CAT.

The lowest and longest of the cats, shaped more like a civet; it is readily tamed, and makes a charming pet.]

Four kinds of wild cats are known in South Africa, of which the largest is the SERVAL, a short-tailed, spotted animal, with rather more woolly fur than the leopard's. The length is about 4 feet 2 inches, of which the tail is only 12 inches. It is found from Algeria to the Cape; but its favourite haunts, like those of all the wild cats of hot countries, are in the reeds by rivers. It kills hares, rats, birds, and small mammals generally.

BAY CAT.

This is an example of the completely tawny small cats.]

The BLACK-FOOTED WILD CAT is another African species. It is a beautiful spotted-and-lined tabby, the size of a small domestic cat, and as likely as any other to be the origin of our tabby variety, if tame cats came to Europe from Africa. At present it is only found south in the Kalahari Desert and Bechuanaland.

The KAFFIR CAT is the common wild cat of the Cape Colony, and a very interesting animal. It is a whole-coloured tawny, upstanding animal, with all the indifference to man and generally independent character of the domestic tom-cat. It is, however, much stronger than the tame cats, with which it interbreeds freely. In the Colony it is often difficult to keep male tame cats, for the wild Kaffir cats come down and fight them in the breeding-season. The Egyptian cat is really the same animal, slightly modified by climate. A very distinct species is the JUNGLE-CAT, ranging from India, through Baluchistan, Syria, and East Africa, and called in Hindustani the CHAUS. The European striped wild cat extends to the Himalaya, where the range of the lion-coloured, yellow-eyed chaus begins. The chaus has a few black bars inside the legs, which vary in different regions. The Indian chaus has only one distinctly marked; the Kaffir cat has four or five. The EGYPTIAN FETTERED CAT has been said to be the origin of the domestic and sacred cats of Egypt. A male chaus is most formidable when "cornered." General Hamilton chased one, which had prowled into the cantonments on the look-out for fowls, into a fence. "After a long time I spied the cat squatting in a hedge," he writes, "and called for the dogs. When they came, I knelt down and began clapping my hands and cheering them on. The cat suddenly made a clean spring at my face. I had just time to catch it as one would a cricket-ball, and, giving its ribs a strong squeeze, threw it to the dogs; but not before it had made its teeth meet in my arm just above the wrist. For some weeks I had to carry my arm in a sling, and I shall carry the marks of the bite to my grave."

KAFFIR CAT.

The common wild cat of South Africa. It will interbreed with domestic cats.]

AFRICAN CHAUS, OR JUNGLE-CAT.

The chaus is the Indian and African equivalent of our wild cat. It is equally strong and savage.]

The chaus, as will be seen from the above, wanders boldly down into the outskirts of large towns, cantonments, and bungalows, on the look-out for chickens and pigeons. Its favourite plan is to lie up at dawn in some piece of thick cover near to where the poultry wander out to scratch, feed, and bask. It then pounces on the nearest unhappy hen and rushes off with it into cover. An acquaintance of the writer once had a number of fine Indian game fowl, of which he was not a little proud. He noticed that one was missing every morning for three days, and, not being able to discover the robber, shut them up in a hen-house. Next morning he heard a great commotion outside, and one of his bearers came running in to say that a leopard was in the hen-house. As this was only built of bamboo or some such light material, it did not seem probable that a leopard would stay there. Getting his rifle, he went out into the compound, and cautiously approached the hen-house, in which the fowls were still making loud protests and cries of alarm. The door was shut; but some creature--certainly not a leopard--might have squeezed in through the small entrance used by the hens. He opened the door, and saw at the back of the hen-house a chaus sitting, with all its fur on end, looking almost as large as a small leopard. On the floor was one dead fowl. The impudent jungle-cat rushed for the door, but had the coolness to seize the hen as it passed, and with this in its mouth rushed past the owner of the hens, his servants and retainers, and reached a piece of thick scrub near with its prize.