There are three varieties of this animal. One, the maneless Cheetah, is confined to Africa; another, the maned Cheetah, is found all over South-west Asia, and is distinguished from the first-named variety by its longer hair, and by the presence of a distinct though short mane, which, however, is more like the cheek-tufts (we must not call them whiskers, though they exactly resemble them, as that name is appropriated to the long vibrissæ) of the Tiger or Lynx than the mane of the Lion. The third variety is the woolly Cheetah, which differs so much from the other two, as to be usually separated as a distinct species (_Felis lanea_). Its hair is woolly, and the spots and face-mark light brown instead of black. The hind legs are unusually short. It is a native of South Africa. [Illustration: SKULL OF CHEETAH.] Mr. Jerdon says, that “this animal was the original _Panther_ and _Leopardus_ of the ancients, who considered (with the Arabs of the present day in North Africa) that it was a breed between the Lion and the Pard.” Possibly it was this animal to which Jeremiah alluded, when he said, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the _Leopard_ his spots?” For, although rare, it is still found in Palestine. Canon Tristram says, “A few still haunt the neighbourhood of Tabor and the hills of Galilee. In Gilead it is more common, and a sheikh there presented me with three skins of the Cheetah, shot by his people.” It frequents open plains, and hunts by day, in correspondence with which habits it has a circular and not an elliptical pupil to the eye. [Illustration: CHEETAH.] The Cheetah is a half-domesticated animal; we say half-domesticated, because, although it is used regularly in hunting, yet it is never properly tamed, and always has to be, as it were, _gulled_ into doing its work. The following account of the manner in which it is used in Indian sport is given by Mr. Jerdon[60]:--