A Leopard Kills a Black Panther and Partially Devours It.
    Two lions, two leopards, and a black panther have for some months been kept in one cage in Barnum’s Hippodrome. The lions are separated from their companions through the night by iron bars, but in the day time the bars are withdrawn, and the animals form a “happy family.”
    No sooner were the bars taken out yesterday morning than the leopard made a spring for the panther’s throat. The panther was young, but his muscles were like iron, and his skin as thick as sole leather, and he struck the leopard a blow with one of his forepaws that laid him sprawling on the floor of the cage. In an instant the leopard was on his feet again, and the animals stood face to face. For fully a minute they glared and growled, and then, with a shock that nearly turned the cage on its side, they met again, each trying to grasp the other by the throat.
    The employes of the Hippodrome, attracted by the noise of the conflict, tried, with bars and spears, to stop the combat, but without avail. Seasoned spears were snapped in two like straws, and even the keeper of the animals dared not approach the cage.
    The leopard, with an unexpected spring, fixed himself on the panther’s back, and taking the loose skin on the back of the latter’s neck between his teeth, gave the panther a toss against the side of the cage that bent the thick iron bars nearly double. For a minute there was no great danger that all the beasts in the cage would escape. The top of the cage was broken, and the floor was split, but the battle was over; for the panther, without a sound, struck the floor of the cage lifeless.
    But the leopard was not satisfied with the death of his antagonist. No sooner was he convinced that he could approach with safety than, seizing the panther’s head between his fore paws, he gave him a tearing with the sharp claws of his hind feet that nearly stripped the skin from his body. Then he began with his teeth, and, before the employes could interfere, nearly half of the dead panther had been eaten by the leopard.
    When at length a sufficient force had been collected around the cage, the keeper who had tamed the panther entered the den. There upon the floor lay his pet’s silky black skin, almost entire. His body not yet cold, quivered, and his eyes glared. The leopard crouched in a corner of the cage, satified with his meal. The iron bars were soon replaced, and the leopard was prevented from doing further mischief.
    At the afternoon performance the leopard was so unruly that it was deemed unsafe for the trainer to enter the cage; but the bars were kept in their places, and no more damage was done.