but leopards and panthers are always called so by ourselves as well as by the natives. This turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put together, and while my servant was doing it, the collector and two medical men, who had recently arrived in consequence of the cholera having just then reached Ceylon from the continent, came to my door, the former armed with a fowlingpiece, and the two latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears. They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, like those of the Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no: the fowling-piece (loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake and awaited my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without

them, as the event will show. I was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which follows took place within an enclosure about twenty feet square, formed on three sides by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door of this the two artillery-men placed themselves; and the Malay captain got on the top to frighten the tiger out by worrying it; an easy operation, as the huts there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery-men wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer him. At last the beast sprang This man received it on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down its throat, firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained in the animal, but was invisible to us. The shot probably went through his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instantly rose upon his legs with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the soldier's breast. At this moment the animal appeared to me to reach about the centre of the man's face; but I had scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger,

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stooping his head, seized the soldier's arm in his mouth, turned him half round staggering, threw him over on his back, and fell upon him. Our dread now was, that if we fired upon the tiger we might kill the man. For a moment there was a pause, when his comrade attacked the beast exactly in the same manner as the gallant fellow himself had done. He stuck his bayonet into its head; the tiger rose at him; he fired; and this time the ball took effect, and in the head. The animal staggered backwards, and we all poured in our fire. He still kicked and writhed, when the gentlemen with the hog-spears advanced and fixed him, while he was finished by some natives beating him on the head with hedge-stakes. The brave artillery-man was after all but slightly hurt. He claimed the skin, which was very cheerfully given to him. There was however a cry among the natives that the head should be cut off: it was; and in so doing the knife came directly across the bayonet. The animal measured little less than four feet from the root of the tail to the muzzle. There was no tradition of a tiger having been seen in Jaffna before: indeed, this one must have either

come a distance of almost twenty miles, or have swam across an arm of the sea nearly two miles in breadth; for Jaffna stands upon a peninsula on which there is no jungle of any magnitude."

We are best acquainted with the leopard in a state of confinement. A pair belonging to the menagerie in the Tower attracted much notice from the elegance and activity of their motions. The female especially was remarkably agile, bounding about the cell with the quickness of thought, apparently touching the four sides of it almost simultaneously, and evincing the most wonderful pliability of form and muscular power. But the most interesting account of this animal in a state of captivity, is from the pen of Mrs. Bowditch, in a communication to Loudon's "Magazine of Natural History."-"I am induced to send you some account of a panther which was in my possession for several months. He and another were found when very young in the forest, apparently deserted by their mother. They were taken to the king of Ashantee, in whose palace they lived several weeks, when my hero, being much larger than his companion, suffocated him in a fit of romping, and was

then sent to Mr. Hutchinson, the resident left by Mr. Bowditch at Coomassie. This gentleman, observing that the animal was very docile, took pains to tame him, and in a great measure succeeded. When he was about a year old, Mr. Hutchinson returned to Cape Coast, and had him led through the country by a chain, occasionally letting him loose when eating was going forward, when he would sit by his master's side, and receive his share with comparative gentleness. Once or twice he purloined a fowl, but easily gave it up to Mr. Hutchinson, on being allowed a portion of something else. The day of his arrival he was placed in a small court leading to the private rooms of the governor, and after dinner was led by the ear into the room, where he received our salutations with some degree of roughness, but with perfect good humour. On the least encouragement he laid his paws upon our shoulders, rubbed his head upon us, and his teeth and claws having been filed, there was no danger of tearing our clothes. He was kept in this court for a week or two, and evinced no ferocity except when one of the servants tried to pull his food from him; he