h a woeful howl, was in the act of
springing on his pursuer, when an Arab shot him through the head with a
ball which killed him on the spot. It was a male panther of a very large
size, and measured, from the point of the tail to the nose, eight feet
two inches."

These animals are found in great abundance in the woods bordering on
Mandara; there are also leopards, the skins of which were seen, but not
in great numbers. The panthers are as insidious as they are cruel; they
will not attack any thing that is likely to make resistance, but have
been known to watch a child for hours while near the protection of huts
or people. It will often spring on a grown person, male or female, while
carrying a burthen, but always from behind. The flesh of a child or
young kid it will sometimes devour, but when any full grown animal falls
a prey to its ferocity, it sucks the blood alone.

In India and Ceylon leopards and panthers are called Tree Tigers, and
the following narrative of an exciting encounter with one is given in
The Menageries:--"I was at Jaffna," says the writer, "at the northern
extremity of the island of Ceylon in the beginning of the year 1819,
when one morning my servant called me an hour or two before the usual
time with, 'Master! master! people sent for master's dogs; tiger in the
town!' Now my dogs chanced to be very degenerate specimens of a fine
species called the Poligar dogs. I kept them to hunt jackals, but tigers
are very different things. This turned out to be a panther; my gun
chanced not to be put together, and while my servant was doing it the
collector and two medical men, who had recently arrived, came to my
door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and the two latter with
remarkably blunt hogspears. They insisted on setting off without waiting
for my gun, a proceeding not much to my taste. The tiger (I must
continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which,
as those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like an
umbrella; the only aperture was a small door about four feet high. The
collector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I begged to wait for my
gun, but, no! the fowling-piece, loaded with ball of course, and the two
hogspears were quite enough; I got a hedge stake and awaited my fate for
very shame. At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the
fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain, and a
pretty figure we should have cut wi