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