The Tiger is mainly nocturnal, but begins its depredations towards five o'clock in the afternoon, before which it remains sleeping in shady thickets. If the weather is rainy and windy it becomes restless and wanders about earlier. Under the provocation of extreme hunger it will hunt during the daytime. Hunger, too, naturally produces extreme boldness. Mr. Ridley relates a story of four Tigers who walked up the steps of a house in search of the master of the house or his dog, and broke into it, the inhabitants retiring in their favour. The Malays have superstitions about Tigers, which are precisely paralleled by the man-and-wolf stories of Europe. "Certain people are supposed to have the power of turning into tigers for a short time, and resuming their human form at pleasure. The transformation commences tail first, and the human tiger is so completely changed that not only has it all the actions and appearance of the tiger, but on resuming its human form it is quite unconscious of what it has been doing in the tiger state." Mr. Ridley disputes the common stories as to man-eaters. If a Tiger has once tasted human flesh it does not always confine itself afterwards to that article of diet, nor is it only aged and comparatively toothless animals which hunt man. That they do take a large toll of coolies is an undoubted fact, and many are the artifices to prevent the rest from knowing the fate of one of their fellow-workmen, or of becoming acquainted with the presence in the neighbourhood of one of the dreaded beasts. The Leopard or Panther, _F. pardus_, is, like the Lion, African and Asiatic in range. The animal is spotted with rosettes of black spots surrounding a central field of the tawny colour of the body generally. Some of the spots are solid and black. "The {396} pantere like unto the smaragdyne" seems to be an inapt description of this Cat, unless indeed the eyes be referred to. The ancients ascribed to it a most fragrant odour. As with the Tiger, a northern variety of this Carnivore has a closer and longer fur. There is a tendency towards melanism in this animal, the black Leopard being comparatively common, particularly, it appears, in high lands. Several other variations in colour are known. These have received different specific names; but it seems that there is in reality but one species of Leopard. The Leopard can climb with the agility of any Cat. Sir S. Baker reserves the name Panther for large Leopards, which reach a length of 7 feet 6 inches. But there is no valid distinction between any two such varieties. The Leopard is as ferocious as the Tiger; and Sir Samuel Baker advises that the power of the human eye be not experimented with when meeting unarmed one of these brutes. [Illustration] FIG. 195.--Snow Leopard. _Felis uncia._ x 1/20.