kid attract the leopards, one of
which, being tempted to enter, is enclosed by the liberation of the
spring and grasped firmly round the body by the noose.

Like the other carnivora, they are timid and cowardly in the presence of
man, never intruding on him voluntarily and making a hasty retreat when
approached. Instances have, however, occurred of individuals having been
slain by them, and like the tiger, it is believed, that, having once
tasted human blood they acquire an habitual relish for it. A peon on
night duty at the courthouse at Anarajapoora, was some years ago carried
off by a leopard from a table in the verandah on which he had laid down
his head to sleep. At Batticaloa a "cheetah" in two instances in
succession was known to carry off men placed on a stage erected in a
tree to drive away elephants from the rice-lands: but such cases are
rare, and as compared with their dread of the bear, the natives of
Ceylon entertain but slight apprehensions of the "cheetah." It is,
however, the dread of sportsmen, whose dogs when beating in the jungle
are especially exposed to its attacks: and I am aware of one instance in
which a party having tied their dogs to the tent-pole for security, and
fallen asleep around them, a leopard sprang into the tent and carried
off a dog from the midst of its slumbering masters.

They are strongly attracted by the peculiar odour which accompanies
small-pox. The reluctance of the natives to submit themselves or their
children to vaccination exposes the island to frightful visitations of
this disease; and in the villages in the interior it is usual on such
occasions to erect huts in the jungle to serve as temporary hospitals.
Towards these the leopards are certain to be allured; and the medical
officers are obliged to resort to increased precautions in consequence.
On one occasion being in the mountains near Kandy, a messenger
despatched to me through the jungle excused his delay by stating that a
"cheetah" had seated itself in the only practicable path, and remained
quietly licking its fore paws and rubbing them over its face, till he
was forced to drive it, with stones, into the forest.

Major Skinner, who for upwards of forty years has had occasion to live
almost constantly in the interior, occupied in the prosecution of
surveys and the construction of roads, is strongly of opinion that
towards man the disposition of the leopard is essentially pacific, and
that, when discovered, its n