roked the lioness herself.

And that was like a kind of handshake as a good-bye. They parted
friends--like two mothers who had met by chance on the roadside, and
each had admired the children of the other.

CHAPTER XIII

The Leopard

The _leopard_ is another animal of the Cat Tribe. You may know him at
once by the _spots_ on his body; and of course the female leopard also
has the spots. These spots are usually black in color, or sometimes very
dark brown. But the color of the body, or "ground color" as it is
called, is different among the several kinds of leopards.

For, I must tell you, the leopard lives in so many countries that he
varies in size and in ground color in different countries. He is found
in almost all parts of Africa. In Asia he lives mostly in the hot
countries in the south; but a special kind of leopard, called the snow
leopard, is found in the cold countries in the north of Asia. On the
American continent there is also a kind of leopard, called the jaguar.

Now I shall describe in detail all the qualities of these different
kinds of leopards.

First, as leopards are felines, they have the fangs, the tongue, the
claws, and the paws of the Cat Tribe, which I have already described to
you.

_The Leopard's Ground Color and Spots_

The ground color of the leopard's skin is usually yellow, but the shade
of yellow varies in different leopards; sometimes it is a bright yellow,
sometimes a brownish yellow. There are leopards whose skin is even
darker than that,--some actually black.

"But why do different kinds of leopards have different ground colors?"
you may ask.

Because they live on different kinds of soil and amidst different kinds
of vegetation. You will remember what I have already told you: that _the
color of an animal's body is very often the same as the color of the
place where he lives_. Then the animal's prey or enemy is not able to
distinguish him from his surroundings. So the animal finds it easier to
catch the prey, or to escape from the enemy. And, because the color of
the soil and vegetation in different countries varies from yellow to
brown, the color of the leopard's body also varies in that manner, at
least as a rule.

Now I shall tell you about his spots, which are always of a dark color.
But they vary in shape in different kinds of leopards. In some leopards
the spot is a solid round disc, like the shape of a coin.

In other leopards the spot is like a thick ri