etched himself.

He had spent the night among the lower branches of a mimosa-bush, the
opening into which was so small that it was a wonder how his large body
could have squeezed through it. Indeed, it would have been quite
impossible for him to have gained the shelter of that dark retreat if he
had not possessed a lithe supple frame and four powerful legs furnished
with tremendous claws.

We should have mentioned, perhaps, that our noble savage was a
magnificent leopard--or Cape "tiger."

As he stretched himself he laid back his head, shut his eyes, and
yawned, by which act he displayed a tremendous collection of canines and
grinders, with a pink throat of great capacity. The yawn ended in a
gasp, and then he raised his head and looked quietly about him, gently
patting the ground with his tail, as a man might pat his bedclothes
while considering what to do next. Not unlike man, he lay down at full
length and tried to go to sleep again, but it would not do. He had
evidently had his full allowance, and therefore got up and stretched
himself again in a standing position. In this act, bending his deep
chest to the ground, he uttered a low _gurr_ of savage satisfaction,
sank his claws into the soil, and gently tore a number of tough roots
into shreds. Sundry little creatures of various kinds in the
neighbourhood, hearing the _gurr_, presented their tails to the sky and
dived into their little holes with incredible rapidity.

The leopard now shook off dull sloth, and, lashing his sides in a
penitential manner with his tail, glided through the opening in the
mimosa-bush, bounded into the branches of a neighbouring tree, ran
nimbly out to the end of one of them, and leaping with a magnificent
spring over a gully, alighted softly on the turf at the other side.
Trotting calmly into an open space, he stopped to take a survey of
surrounding nature.

Breakfast now naturally suggested itself. At least we may suppose so
from a certain eager look which suddenly kindled in the leopard's eye,
and a wrinkling of his nose as a bird flitted close over his head. At
that moment a species of rabbit, or cony, chanced to hop round the
corner of a rock. The lightning-flash is not quicker than the spring
with which the Cape-tiger traversed the twenty feet between himself and
his prey.

The result was very effectual as regarded the cony, but it was not much
to gurr about in the way of breakfast. It was a mere whet to the
appetite