The Leopard's Habits
Now I shall tell you the other qualities and habits of the leopard.
First, his _size_. The leopard is smaller than the tiger; he is not
quite three feet high at the shoulders. The length of the leopard's
body, without the tail, is about five feet.
That is the average size of the _male_ leopard. In describing each kind
of animal I am usually telling you about the male, because he is
generally larger and stronger than the female. Why? Because the male has
to do the fighting to protect the family, especially when the children
are very young.
The leopard's _strength_ is so great that he can break a steer's neck
with a blow of his paw. He cannot carry a steer on his back, which a
tiger can do, but still the leopard can drag the steer for some
distance. As for a deer, the leopard can easily carry it. That has been
discovered in a strange manner. As I have told you, a leopard lies on
the bough of a tree and waits for a deer to pass under the tree. One
time a leopard happened to kill a deer in that way. As he was not very
hungry, he ate only a few mouthfuls from the throat and from the under
part of the deer.
He wanted to keep the deer for his next big meal. But if he kept it on
the ground, the jackals and hyenas would find it in his absence and eat
it up. So what did the leopard do? Can you guess?
Well, the leopard carried the deer up that tree, and placed it crosswise
on the fork of the bough. Then he climbed down and went for a prowl. He
knew that the thieves of the jungle--the jackals and the hyenas--could
not climb the tree and steal his dinner.
But a party of hunters passed that way and saw the deer's body on the
fork of the tree; and they knew that a leopard had carried it up there.
How could they know that? Very easily. The hunters brought down the
deer's body and examined it. They found that the deer's throat and under
part had been eaten.
Now I must tell you that hunters know from the study of the jungle that
each wild animal has a different way of eating its prey. A leopard
always eats first the throat and the under part; but a tiger always eats
a hind leg first. So these hunters knew that it must be a leopard that
had eaten the deer's throat and under part.
And the hunters also knew before, from their study of the jungle, that a
leopard can climb trees; but they knew that more certainly after this
incident. How? Because they knew from the deer's throat that a leopard
had killed it and partly eaten it; and they _found the deer in the
tree_. So they concluded that the leopard must have climbed the tree and
hidden the deer there.
This also proves the fact that the leopard is really an intelligent
animal. The lion and the tiger hide their prey by merely placing it in a
hollow in the ground, and covering it loosely with sand or leaves. But
unless the lion and the tiger are very watchful, the thieves of the
jungle often steal their dinner; that is, the jackals and the hyenas
smell the flesh, and uncover it and eat it up.
But the leopard hides his prey more securely. As he has the power of
climbing trees, he uses that power to carry his prey to the fork of a
tree, where the thieves of the jungle cannot reach it.
My dear children, there are many people who do not use the natural gifts
they have. The leopard does better than that. He uses his gift of
climbing trees in two ways: first to _catch_ an animal passing beneath,
and then to _hide_ the prey in the tree. Had the lion and the tiger
continued to use their former gift of climbing trees, they too would
have been able to hide their dinner safe from the thieves. Instead, they
now find it stolen many a time, and have to go hungry.
The leopard, of course, uses his other gifts in catching his prey in
various ways. Being a feline, he too can give a big bound like a cat,
and as he also has padded feet, he can catch his prey by stalking it. He
creeps silently through the jungle, till he comes near his prey; then he
gives a sudden bound and falls upon it.
The leopard has splendid muscles; the muscles are not big, but they are
hard. The leopard leads such an active life that he is generally slim,
without any flabbiness. In fact, the leopard is a perfect type of feline
grace, beauty, and agility. The lion is the laziest animal of the Cat
Tribe; the leopard is the most active. The leopard is even more active
than the tiger.
_The Panther: Popular Name for Large Leopard_
There is no such animal as the _panther_. That is only the popular name
for a large leopard--particularly a large and ferocious leopard.
Some people fear a large leopard even more than they do a tiger, because
a large leopard attacks a man even more often than a tiger does. Other
wild animals as a rule avoid man, as I have told you before. But a tiger
very often attacks man, and a large leopard does so almost every time he
can. He is by nature even more ferocious than a tiger.
The leopard has this very bad quality: he is perhaps the only animal
that kills for the mere "fun" of killing--just like some men who call
themselves "sportsmen." If a large leopard gets among a herd of cattle,
he kills several of them, one after another. He does the same with wild
pigs, wild goats, and wild sheep. He kills many more than he can
possibly eat. In fact, the bad name some people give to the tiger in
that respect really belongs to the panther or large leopard. When a
large number of animals are found killed, a tiger is usually blamed for
it.
But wise people, who have studied the ways of animals, never make that
mistake. Of course, they cannot always tell by the paw marks on the
ground whether a small tiger or a large leopard did the killing--because
the paw marks of a large leopard look so much like those of a small
tiger. But if a single one of the animals killed has been eaten, then
they know whether it was a tiger or a leopard that did the killing. How
do they know that? By examining the part eaten--as I have already
described to you on page 178.
_How the Leopard Seizes his Prey_
A leopard usually seizes his prey by the throat. He grips the throat in
his jaws, and holds on till the animal cannot breathe and is suffocated.
If the prey is large, such as a big stag, the leopard's grip on the
throat may not suffocate it completely; then the leopard uses another
method. He keeps his grip on the throat of the prey, and _pulls
downward_ with his full weight. The prey tries to rear up on its hind
legs to throw off the leopard--but then the leopard pulls downward with
a sudden jerk. This breaks either the animal's spine or its neck, and it
falls to the ground.
The leopard seizes his prey by the throat when it is a swift-footed
animal, like the deer. But when it is a slow-footed animal, like cattle,
the leopard uses another method--at least on some occasions. He rushes
to the prey from the side or the back, and kills it by a blow of his paw
on the neck from above--as a tiger does. If one blow only stuns the
prey, and it falls, the leopard just starts _eating_ the throat, which
of course kills the prey.
_The Leopard's One Amiable Quality--He Loves Perfumes_
The leopard is said to have at least one amiable quality. It is said
that he is so fond of beautiful perfumes that he can be tamed with them!
That is, if you use some beautiful perfume which the leopard likes, you
can tame him with it for a time. But I cannot tell you whether that is
_always_ true.
There are many things said about animals that are not always true, for
instance, that every animal can be charmed with music--if only we use
the particular kind of music which that particular animal likes. No
doubt, particular kinds of animal _have_ been charmed in that way for
thousands of years; and even the most terrible kind of snake, called the
cobra, is regularly charmed in India with a flute.
You must have read of these serpent-charmers in storybooks, as they
charm even _wild_ cobras in that way. So it is quite true that several
kinds of animals can be charmed with particular kinds of _soft_ music,
such as the music of the flute and the violin. I shall tell you all
about that in my next book.
But about taming leopards with perfumes--we are not sure that _all_ wild
leopards can be tamed with beautiful perfumes. It is at least true that
_some_ wild leopards have been tamed in that way. I shall now tell you a
true story, to show you how that once happened.
_The Leopard and the Lavender_
Once a wild leopard had been caught in a trap in the jungle. He was put
into a cage and carried overland to a seaport. There the leopard in his
cage was put on a ship to be taken to England. The cage was placed on
the deck of the ship.
The leopard was very wild and ferocious. If any of the passengers or
crew came anywhere near the cage, he snarled with rage and leaped at the
bars of the cage. He shook and bit the iron bars, as if he wanted to get
out and attack the people. He was well fed all the time, but still
nothing seemed to lessen his ferocity.
Then, one day, a lady happened to take out her handkerchief. She was
standing about three or four yards from the cage, and a fresh breeze was
blowing from her direction toward the cage. Immediately a change came
over the leopard. A minute before he had been snarling with rage at
sight of her, and trying to get out to attack her.
But as soon as she took out her handkerchief, the leopard ceased to
snarl and to bite the bars. Instead, he tried to put his head through
the bars, as if to get his _nose_ as near her as possible.
Of course the lady did not understand that. She merely wondered why the
leopard had changed his behavior so suddenly. She now noticed that the
leopard was bending down, and scratching the floor of the cage near the
front of the bars--just as a pet cat or dog will scratch the floor
outside your door to be let in. The lady wondered still more, and came
a little nearer to the cage.
Immediately the leopard got up, and began pacing the cage in joy. The
lady now stood about two yards away. Then the leopard put his paw
through the bars and began to _snatch_ with it. The lady was a little
frightened at first, but presently she noticed that the leopard was not
snatching at _her_, but at the _handkerchief_, which was still in her
hand. And the leopard was not snatching ferociously, but almost
playfully, like a great big cat.
After a moment's thought the lady realized that the leopard wanted the
handkerchief--but why he wanted it, she did not know. So she threw the
handkerchief at the bars. The leopard caught it in his paw, and pulled
it into the cage.
Then you should have seen how that wild and ferocious leopard behaved!
He played with that handkerchief more joyously than any kitten ever
played with a ball. He put the handkerchief on the floor of the cage,
leaped upon it, rubbed his nose on it, and even rolled over it.
Gradually the lady began to understand why he did that. The handkerchief
had been scented with lavender. She wondered if it could be the
_lavender_ that he loved, and not the handkerchief itself?
Struck by this idea, the lady went to her cabin and brought out a small
bottle of lavender scent. She opened the stopper, and splashed a few
drops of the scent through the bars. Then the leopard simply went crazy
with delight. He leaped upon the places on the floor where the drops had
fallen, and he rubbed his nose on them, and rolled over them. Then the
lady knew that it was the scent that the leopard loved.
After that she gave him the lavender to smell every day, and the leopard
became so tame that he allowed her to come to the bars and pat his body.
But as this is a true story, I must tell you the ending. One of the men
passengers on that ship gave the leopard a large piece of cotton-wool
soaked in lavender. That was unfortunate--I mean it was unfortunate that
the man used cotton-wool instead of a handkerchief or even a piece of
cloth.
The leopard played with the cotton-wool in delight, and rubbed his nose
and face on it. In doing so he must have got the cotton-wool into his
mouth--and then he must have taken in a deep breath. We don't know
whether he meant to do that, as he liked the perfume so much, or whether
he took the breath without meaning to do so. In any case, the
cotton-wool got into his windpipe, and he tried to cough it out; but he
could not. The foolish passenger did not know what was the matter; and
so he did nothing.
Then in a few days an inflammation set in, and the poor leopard died.
Some people are so thoughtless!