The cautious approach of this animal is so wary that a dog is pinned by the neck and carried off before it is aware of the presence of its enemy. Upon one occasion in Africa we were bivouacked for the night on the banks of the Settite river, and no sound disturbed the repose of the camp. Suddenly a leopard bounded into the centre, where the Arabs were sleeping around the embers of a splendid fire, and seizing one of the dogs, it sprang into the darkness, carrying its captive with it. The remaining dogs rushed off in pursuit, together with all the Arabs with swords and shields, and the leopard dropped its prize about 150 yards from our enclosure. The unfortunate dog had been surprised in its sleep, and it died in a few hours from the injuries sustained, the neck and throat being terribly lacerated. It would have been natural to suppose that the dogs would have given an alarm on the approach of the wild animal, but the noiseless tread of the leopard, as usual, was unheard, even in the extreme stillness of a calm night. The sudden attack of a leopard is generally so unexpected that a dog has no time for self-defence, and being invariably seized by the neck, it is at once rendered helpless, and cannot utter a warning shriek before it is carried off. I was walking with a very powerful bull terrier at Newera Ellia in Ceylon, when the dog, who was running through the jungle within a few yards of me, suddenly disappeared without a cry, and was never heard of again; this same dog would have made a good defence had it confronted the leopard face to face. On another occasion a dog named Matchless, a cross between foxhound and pointer, was seized by a leopard in open day when, together with a pack of hounds, walking through a jungle-path at Dimbola, not far from Newera Ellia. The leopard sprang suddenly from a tree, and, seizing the dog, immediately ascended, and took refuge among the boughs with the hound suspended in its mouth. The entire pack bayed the audacious enemy; it then dropped the dog and jumped from tree to tree, followed beneath by the excited hounds. At length the leopard reached a large tree, which was sufficiently isolated to prevent it from springing to any adjoining branches. In this position it was surrounded, and became the central object, where it remained snarling at the infuriated pack. The party of hunters now commenced a bombardment with stones, and a lucky hit induced the leopard to either jump or fall into the middle of the hounds. There was an exceedingly large dog named Pirate, a cross between mastiff and bloodhound; he immediately seized the leopard, and a general fight ensued, the whole pack supporting Pirate in his attack. Captain E. Palliser, late 7th Hussars, quickly thrust his hunting-knife under the shoulder, and in a few minutes the hounds were worrying a dead leopard.