_.]

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4-1/2 feet; tail, 2-1/2; height, 2-1/2
to 2-3/4 feet.

This animal is one of the most interesting of all the felines, both
as regards its appearance, disposition, habits, and the uses to which
it can be put. Throughout India it is in much request as a necessary
appanage to regal state; and, therefore, a class of men devote
themselves to the trapping of this creature which, when trained,
finds a ready sale at the courts of Indian nobles. For this purpose
the adult animal is always caught, it being considered by the
chita-catchers that a young leopard would never turn out well for
the purposes of the chase. A similar idea prevails amongst the
falconers of Hindustan regarding nestlings, and it is surprising how
soon a large adult and apparently savage animal can be reduced to
a state of comparative slavery and obedient to the orders of his
keepers.

Dr. Jerdon describes one which he brought up from its earliest
infancy; his bungalow was next to the one I inhabited for a time at
Kampti, and consequently I saw a good deal of Billy, as the leopard
was named. At my first interview I found him in the stables amongst
the dogs and horses, and, as I sat down on his charpoy, he jumped
up alongside of me, and laid down to be scratched, playing and purring
and licking my hands with a very rough tongue. He sometimes used to
go out with his master, and was gradually getting into the way of
running down antelope, when Dr. Jerdon was ordered off on field
service.

The mode of hunting with the chita is so well known, and has been
so frequently described, that I think I need not attempt a
description. Its habits in a state of nature, and the mode of capture,
are more to the purport of this work. It is said by shikarees to feed
only once every third day, when, after gorging itself, it retires
to its den for the other two. On the morning of the third day he visits
some particular tree, which the animals of his species in the
neighbourhood are in the habit of frequenting. Such trees are easily
to be recognised by the scoring of the bark on which he whets his
claws. Here, after having relieved himself in various ways and played
about with such of his comrades as may be there, they go off on a
hunting expedition.

There is an interesting letter from "Deccanee Bear" in _The Asian_
of the 22nd of July, 1880, giving a description of the snaring of
some of these animals, and the remarks he makes about their