CITE ;TA: him% The several leopards and panthers of India are so named. The word, meaning spotted, is so used• by the natives of India, but they prefix another word to indicate tho particular animal intended. Generally, by the word cheeta is meant the Fells leopardus, Schreb. The F. pardus is called the tendwa, also chita and chita-bag ; it is the larger cheeta or pard or panther, and the hunting leopard the shikari cheeta. The black or kala cheeta is sup posed by some to be a variety of the F. pardus. The smaller variety, the leopard, is the gor bacha or bor-bacha, or bibia-bag. The hunting leopard, the Fells jubata, is carried to the field on a flat-topped cart without sides, drawn by two bullocks. Each animal has two attendants, and is loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back of the vehicle, but is also held by the keepers by a strap round the loins. A leathern hood covers their eyes. By skilful management the cart approaches within two hundred yards of the game. The cheeta is then unhooded and loosed from its bonds, and it drops quietly off the cart.
It approaches them at a slow, crouching canter, masking itself by every bush and inequality of ground. As soon, however, as they begin to show alarm, he quickens his pace, and is in the midst of the herd in a few bounds, rolls over the one he fixes on, and in an instant is sucking the life-blood from its throat. The instant that the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the cheeta, cuts the victim's throat, and, receiving some of the blood in a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope is then dragged away and placed in a receptacle under the cart, while the chest i is rewarded with a leg for his success. Jerdon regards as one species the three cheetas of India, viz, the two varieties of Fells pardus, the panther and the leopard ; also the black cheeta or black leopard, Fells inelas, Perou. The hunting leopard or shikari cheeta is the maned leopard. Fells jubata, the pard of the ancients.—Sehreder ; iltualy's Sketches in India.