Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

¶De Leopardo. ca. 67.

LEopardus is a beast most cruell, and is gendered of a Perde and of a Ly∣onesse, as Isi. saith li. 12. For as Plin. sai∣eth, the Lion gendreth with the Perdus, or the Perde with the Lionnesse, and of such gendering commeth vnkinde Per∣des, as of an Horse and of a she Asse, or of a Mare and a male Asse is gendered & Mule. As Isi. saith, the Leopardis a full réesing beast and head strong, and thir∣steth bloud: and the female is more cruell than the male, as Arist. saith, and hath diuers colours, as the Parde hath, and pursueth his pray starting and lea∣ping, and not running: and if he taketh not his praye in the third leape or in the fourth, then he stinteth for indignatiō, & goeth backward, as though he wer ouer come, and is lyke to a Lyon in bodye, tayle and féete, but in shape of the head, he is lyke to the Parde. And he is lesse in body than the Lyon, and therefore he dreadeth the Lyon, and maketh a caue vnder the earth with double entering, one by which he goeth in, and another, by which he goeth out: and that caue is full wide and large in either entring, & more narrow and straight in the mid∣dle, and so when the Lyon commeth, he flyeth and falleth sodainlye into the caue, and the Lyon pursueth him with a great réese, & entereth also into the caue, and thinketh there to haue the masterie of the Leopard, but for greatnesse of his body, he may not passe fréely by the mid∣dle of the den, which is full straight: and when the Leopard knoweth that y^e Ly∣on is so let and helde in y^e straight place, he goeth out of the den forward, & com∣meth againe into the denne in the other side behinde the Lion, and réeseth on him behinde with biting and with clawes: and so the Leopard hath ofte in y^e wise, the masterie of the Lyon by crafte, and not by strength, & so the lesse beast hath ofte the masterie of the strong beast, by deceipt and guyle in the denne, and dare not reese on him openly in the fielde, as Homer saith, in libro. De pugms & A∣stucijs bestiarum. Lib. 8. Arist. speaketh of a beast that is called Ferculio, and A∣uicen calleth that beast Leopardus. A beast sayth Ari. that is called Ferculio, eateth somtime venemous things, and lecketh then mans dirte, and eateth it: and therefore Hunters hangeth suche dirte in some Uessell, on a trée, and when the Leoparde commeth to that Tree, and leapeth vp to take the dirte, then the hunters slaye him in the meane time while he is thereabout: & the Panther doth the same, & the Perdus also, as it is sayd ther. Also Plinius spea∣keth of the Leopard and saith, that som∣time the Leopard is sicke, and drinketh wilde Goates bloud, and scapeth from the sicknesse in that wise.