d. Many
of these are native names conferred upon it by the inhabitants of
various parts of the north of India, and when they are taken up and
repeated by sportsmen and travellers they prove very confusing to
naturalists, who cannot always be sure that they all refer to one
animal.

All stags are very attentive to their mates, and the least cry of the
female will draw her companion to her side. A hunter once saw a fine
male come running up at the cry of his mate, which had just been shot.
The poor thing was dead, but the stag stayed by her body, and would not
be frightened away until he was quite sure there was no life left in
it.

[Illustration: "The stag stayed by his mate's body."]

[Illustration: The Black Leopard.]

THE BLACK LEOPARD.

There are few animals more beautiful than the leopard, which inhabits
India and Africa. Looking at its handsome fur, we cannot fail to be
struck with the regular way in which the black spots or rings are
arranged upon the reddish-yellow ground, and how regularly they vary in
shape and size in different parts of the body.

Besides the ordinary spotted leopard there is, however, a black leopard.
It is found in India and some other countries of southern Asia where the
ordinary leopard lives, and seems most common upon the high lands. It is
very much scarcer than the ordinary leopard, and is, indeed, very rare.
The natives of India have a great dread of it, for they think it is more
cunning, more ferocious and stronger than the spotted leopard, which is
one of the fiercest and most active of the flesh-eating animals. It
climbs trees and sports among the branches with all the agility of a
cat. It is as ferocious as the tiger, and though not so large, its
activity and strength make it a very dangerous foe.

Though the black leopard is different in colour from the ordinary
leopard, it is in other respects very similar, and naturalists now
regard it as only a variety of the spotted leopard. After getting
together all the information which they can about the colours of the
leopard and similar animals, they have come to the conclusion that the
leopard family has a tendency to turn to black. This does not mean that
full-grown spotted leopards sometimes turn black quickly, but that the
cubs are occasionally born black, or grow dark soon after they are born.

The leopard is also known to show other variations of colour, but
examples of these are very much rarer than black ones. A