A curious ancient superstition about the Leopard is embodied in its name. It was thought not to be actually the same animal as the Panther or Pard, but to be a mongrel or hybrid between the male Pard and the Lioness: hence it was called the Lion-panther, or Leopardus. This error, as Archbishop Trench tells us, “has lasted into modern times; thus Fuller, ‘Leopards and Mules are properly no creatures.’” Another word-combination was made by the Romans when wishing to find a name for the Giraffe. It is “a creature combining, though with infinitely more grace, yet some of the height and even the proportions of a Camel, with the spotted skin of the Pard.” They called it “Camelopardus,” the Camel-panther.
Some authors give it as their opinion that the Leopard outshines all the great beasts of prey in beauty and elegance, and, indeed, called it the Carnivore par excellence. Unfortunately, most English people have no means of forming a true opinion on a matter of this sort, as we see the animals only in menageries; but judging from the specimens we have seen in confinement, we should incline to the belief that it is far behind both the Lion and Tiger, and is even beaten by the Jaguar in the matter of colouring, although the surly look of the latter makes him, on the whole, a far less attractive beast. The adult Leopard in the London Zoological Gardens is perhaps the clumsiest brute in the whole Lion-house—fat, bull-necked, and stupid-looking. Stupid-looking, and even clumsy, that is, when lying lazily asleep on the floor of his den; but watch him when four o’clock comes, and the meat-barrow goes round, and then where will you find more marvellous agility? All the Cats are alike in this; they are very lazy at times, but when they do begin to move, there is no more complete example of perfectly graceful movement, and one feels as if he could watch them “on and off for days and days,” as Alice’s frog-footman puts it.
LEOPARD.
The characters of the hide are so characteristic that they must be given in some detail, especially as the spots must be distinguished from those of the Jaguar, the great spotted Cat of the New World. The skin is described as follows:—“On an orange-yellow ground, passing below into white, are spots of deep or brownish-black, sometimes distinct, sometimes composed of two, three, or even four points disposed in a circle, and surrounding a space, always somewhat darker than the ground-colour, and shading into it below. On the medio-dorsal line, in the hinder part of the body, the spots are so arranged as to produce three or even four regular parallel bands. On the side of the body, also, bands are found, but they are indefinite in number, and irregularly disposed. On the head and legs, the circular spots pass by degrees into mere points. The belly is strewn with great double points, irregularly disposed, and on the legs the points, also double, unite and form bands. The tail is covered over the greater part of its length with annular spots. On the hinder part of the ears is a clear spot.”
It must not be supposed, however, that all Leopards have exactly the kind of marking here described, for it varies according to habitat, age, sex, and season. Still, the skin-markings are definite enough to enable one to tell the true Leopard, either from the Hunting Leopard (Cheetah), the Jaguar, or the Clouded Tiger, the only animals with which there is any possibility of confounding it.
In size the Leopard is decidedly inferior to either the Lion or Tiger; being not more than some seven feet six inches from snout to tip of tail, and two feet seven inches high at the shoulder. The tail itself is about three feet eight inches long. The female is somewhat smaller than the male, to which the above measurements apply. The whiskers are strong and white, and the eyes yellow.
The head-quarters of the Leopard are the African continent, where its range is almost co-extensive with the Lion’s, as it occurs from Algeria in the north to Cape Colony in the south. In the latter locality it is known by the settlers as the Tiger, but this is quite a misnomer. The Tiger of the Cape colonists is a spotted, not a striped Cat, and is indeed nothing but the African variety of the Panther. Like the Lion, the Leopard extends into Asia, penetrating, however, much farther into that continent than the king of beasts. In the western parts of Asia it occurs, amongst other places, in Palestine, where “it is found all round the Dead Sea, in Gilead, and Bashan, and occasionally in the few wooded districts in the West.” Leopards are found in Ceylon, where they are the only great Carnivores, but where they are neither very numerous nor very dangerous, as they seldom attack man. By the Europeans the Ceylon Leopard is erroneously called a Cheetah, but the true “Cheetah” (Felis jubata), the Hunting Leopard of India, does not exist in the island.
The Leopard is found at its extreme easterly range in Japan, where it occurs under a distinct variety, known as the “Northern Leopard,” the skin of which is “much like that of a fine-coloured Hunting Leopard, but it is at once distinguished by the comparatively shorter legs, by the larger size and brown centre of the black spots, and from all the varieties of the Leopard by the linear spots on the nape and the spots on the back not being formed of roses or groups of spots. The skin in its tanned state is four feet six inches, and the tail two feet ten inches long.”
Another variety from Formosa is distinguished by the shortness of its tail, which is not more than a foot and three-quarters long, or about half the length of that of its African brother. Some naturalists propose to consider both these varieties as distinct species, but such characters as the length of the tail and the form and disposition of the spots are eminently variable, and when we consider that another Leopard from Formosa has been described with a tail one foot one inch long, and another whose caudal appendage was two feet seven inches in length, we shall certainly be justified in concluding that such slight difference must have been produced by the innate tendency of all animals to vary in unimportant particulars, and by the influence of surrounding conditions, and we may safely put all these various kinds of Leopard under the common label Felis pardus.