Although capable of domestication, the Cheetah is, when roused, anything but a pleasant animal to come across. Two colonists from the Cape of Good Hope happened to meet one while they were out shooting Gazelles, and, unfortunately for themselves, pursued it. “The roughness of the road retarded the animal’s flight, and a ball reached it. It immediately turned upon the hunter who had wounded it, and, leaping upon him, pulled him from his Horse, and a hand-to-hand conflict began between the two adversaries. The other hunter dismounted and hastened to succour his comrade, at the risk of hitting him as well as the animal from which he wished to deliver him. His shot was badly aimed. The noise of the discharge changed the aspect of the combat, for the Cheetah abandoned the man whom he had thrown down, to fling himself with redoubled fury on the new assailant, who had not even time to draw his hunting-knife. The animal seized him by the head, and, without letting go, rolled with him to the bottom of a ravine. It was of no avail that the first man, left alive, but horribly mutilated, dragged himself to the new battle-field; the wounds of his companion were mortal, and he only had the melancholy satisfaction of giving the coup de grâce to the animal, who was already exhausted by loss of blood.”
It is curious, considering the constant domestication of this animal in India, that it does not breed at all readily in confinement. In fact, Mr. Bartlett, who probably knows more about the matter than any one, says that it has never to his knowledge bred in England; but Dr. Günther affirms that it has bred in the Gardens in Frankfort.
The young animal is covered with soft brown hair, without spots, a curious fact, quite reversing the usual order of things, for, as we have seen, the young of the Lion, Puma, and other one-coloured Cats, are distinctly spotted. The black mark on the cheek appears first, and then the body spots. Mr. Jerdon gives an interesting account of a Cheetah kitten belonging to him:—
“I brought up the young one above alluded to along with some Greyhound pups, and they soon became excellent friends. Even when nearly full-grown it would play with the Dogs (who did not over relish its bounding at them), and was always sportive and frolicsome. It got much attached to me, at once recognising its name (Billy), and it would follow me on horseback like a Dog, every now and then sitting down for a few seconds, and then racing on after me. It was very fond of being noticed, and used to purr just like a Cat. It used to climb on any high object—the stump of a tree, a stack of hay—and from this elevated perch look all round for some moving object. As it grew up, it took first to attacking some Sheep which I had in the compound, but I cured it of this by a few sound horsewhippings; then it would attack Donkeys, and get well kicked by them; and when not half-grown it flew one day at a full-grown tame Nylghau, and mauled its legs very severely before it could be called off. I had some Chikaras (Gazella Bennettii) caught, and let loose before it to train it. The young Cheetah almost always caught them easily, but it wanted address to pull them down, and did not hold them. Occasionally, if the Antelope got too far away, it would give up the chase, but if I then slipped a Greyhound, it would at once follow the Dog and join the chase. It was gradually getting to understand its work better, and had pulled down a well-grown Antelope Fawn, when I parted with it, as I was going on field service.”
Brehm had a Cheetah called “Jack,” which was so tame that his master led him about like a Dog, and even took him into a drawing-room full of ladies, by whom, after they had recovered from their fright at seeing a real wild beast enter the room, he allowed himself to be patted and caressed. The same author states that a Cheetah once lived at large in an English seaport, and was the greatest possible favourite with the sailors and other inhabitants.
THE HYÆNA FAMILY.[61]
This group contains the single genus Hyæna, one species of which, the Striped Hyæna (H. striata), inhabits North-east Asia and Northern Africa; the others (H. crocuta and H. brunnea) inhabiting South Africa.
Externally, the Hyænas have something the appearance of extremely ugly and unattractive-looking Dogs. They are somewhat larger than a Shepherd’s Dog, and are covered with coarse bristly hair, short over the greater part of the body, but produced into a sort of mane along the ridge of the neck. The mode of progression is entirely digitigrade, the legs having much the same proportion as in an average Dog, except for the fact that the hind legs are shorter than the fore legs, so that the body slopes from the withers to the haunches. The claws resemble those of the Dog in that they cannot be retracted in sheaths of skin: here, therefore, we have a great and marked difference from all the Cat tribe.
SKULL OF HYÆNA.