STRANGE ANIMAL-FRIENDSHIPS. 185 



strain desperately at the full length of his tether, that he might smell 

 at the mouth of the dog, and use all his arts to induce him to have a 

 romp, even though he had never set eyes on that especial dog before. 



In 1822 some white rats were trapped in Colonel Berkeley's stables. 

 Mr. Samuel Moss, of Cheltenham, took a fancy to a youngster, and de- 

 termined to make a pet of him. He was soon tamed, and christened 

 Scugg. Then he was formally introduced to a rat-killing terrier, a cere- 

 mony so well understood by Flora that she not only refrained from as- 

 saulting the new-comer, but actually constituted herself his pi'otectress, 

 mounting guard over Scugg whenever a stranger came into the room, 

 growling, snarling, and showing her teeth, until convinced he had no 

 evil intentions toward her protege. These two strangely-assorted friends 

 lapped from the same saucer, played together in the garden, and, when 

 Flora indulged in a snooze on the rug, Scugg ensconced himself snugly 

 between her legs. He would mount the dinner-table and carry oflE 

 sugar, pastry, or cheese, while Flora waited below to share in the plun- 

 der. One day a man brought Mr. Moss another white rat, while the 

 terrier and Scugg were racing about the room. The stranger was shaken 

 out of the trap, and presently two white rats were scampering across 

 the floor pursued by Flora. The chase did not last long, one of them 

 quickly falling a victim to the terrier's teeth, much to the experimental- 

 ist's alarm, as his eyes could not distinguish one rat from the other. 

 Looking around, however, his mind was relieved, for there in his corner 

 was Scugg, with Flora standing sentry before him — a position she held 

 until the man and the dead rat were out of the room. When his mas- 

 ter took a wife to himself, a new home was found for Scugg ; but the 

 poor fellow died within a month of his removal, and it is not improbable 

 that the separation from his canine friend was the primary cause of the 

 rat's untimelv decease. 



St. Pierre pronounced the mutual attachment displayed between a 

 lion at Versailles and a dog to be one of the most touching exhibitions 

 Nature could offer to the speculations of the philosopher. Such ex- 

 hibitions are by no means rare. Captive lords of the forest and jungle 

 have often admitted dogs to theii- society and lived on affectionate terms 

 with them. Not long ago, an ailing lioness in the Dublin Zoological 

 Gardens was so tormented by the rats nibbling her toes that a little 

 terrier was introduced into the cage. His entrance elicited a sulky 

 growl from the invalid ; but, seeing the visitor toss a rat in the air and 

 catch it with a killing snap as it came down, she at once came to the 

 sensible conclusion that the dog's acquaintance was worth cultivating. 

 Coaxing the terrier to her side, she folded her paw round him and took 

 him to her breast ; and there he rested every night afterward, ready to 

 pounce upon any rat daring to disturb the slumbers of the lioness. 



The last time we visited the lion-house of the Regent's Park Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, we watched with no little amusement the antics of a 

 dog, who was evidently quite at home in a cage occupied by a tiger and 



