In size the Leopard is decidedly inferior to either the Lion or Tiger; being not more than some seven feet six inches from snout to tip of tail, and two feet seven inches high at the shoulder. The tail itself is about three feet eight inches long. The female is somewhat smaller than the male, to which the above measurements apply. The whiskers are strong and white, and the eyes yellow. The head-quarters of the Leopard are the African continent, where its range is almost co-extensive with the Lion’s, as it occurs from Algeria in the north to Cape Colony in the south. In the latter locality it is known by the settlers as the Tiger, but this is quite a misnomer. The Tiger of the Cape colonists is a _spotted_, not a _striped_ Cat, and is indeed nothing but the African variety of the Panther. Like the Lion, the Leopard extends into Asia, penetrating, however, much farther into that continent than the king of beasts. In the western parts of Asia it occurs, amongst other places, in Palestine, where “it is found all round the Dead Sea, in Gilead, and Bashan, and occasionally in the few wooded districts in the West.” Leopards are found in Ceylon, where they are the only great Carnivores, but where they are neither very numerous nor very dangerous, as they seldom attack man. By the Europeans the Ceylon Leopard is erroneously called a Cheetah, but the true “Cheetah” (_Felis jubata_), the Hunting Leopard of India, does not exist in the island. The Leopard is found at its extreme easterly range in Japan, where it occurs under a distinct variety, known as the “Northern Leopard,” the skin of which is “much like that of a fine-coloured Hunting Leopard, but it is at once distinguished by the comparatively shorter legs, by the larger size and brown centre of the black spots, and from all the varieties of the Leopard by the linear spots on the nape and the spots on the back not being formed of roses or groups of spots. The skin in its tanned state is four feet six inches, and the tail two feet ten inches long.” Another variety from Formosa is distinguished by the shortness of its tail, which is not more than a foot and three-quarters long, or about half the length of that of its African brother. Some naturalists propose to consider both these varieties as distinct species, but such characters as the length of the tail and the form and disposition of the spots are eminently variable, and when we consider that another Leopard from Formosa has been described with a tail one foot one inch long, and another whose caudal appendage was two feet seven inches in length, we shall certainly be justified in concluding that such slight difference must have been produced by the innate tendency of all animals to vary in unimportant particulars, and by the influence of surrounding conditions, and we may safely put all these various kinds of Leopard under the common label _Felis pardus_.