94 Wild Beasts 



laziest beings alive. " Laziness, assurance, and boldness," 

 says Gerard, are his most conspicuous traits of character, 

 and Moffat (" Missionary Labors and Scenes in South 

 Africa") adds gluttony to the list. He was "taken 

 aback," he assures us, by the astonishing feats in the way 

 of gormandizing that this animal performed. It should be 

 remembered, however, than an average beast of prey 

 passes a life divided into alternate periods of famine and 

 repletion, and that it is, both from habit and conforma- 

 tion, capable of cramming itself in a manner which 

 almost exceeds belief. 



There is hardly need to cite authorities upon the act of 

 seizing prey, because lions do so in all those ways that 

 different observers have severally decided to be peculiar to 

 this beast ; and it is the same with the various methods 

 by which they kill. The whole subject of attack, whether 

 upon man or beast, is wrapped in a mass of positive con- 

 tradictions. 



In India troops of lions have been known to divide 

 themselves into sections that relieved one another at short 

 intervals in the actual pursuit of game. As a rule, how- 

 ever, species belonging to this group do not, and can not, 

 really run down prey. Their peculiar structure, adapted to 

 bounding, climbing, and brief rushes, does not admit of a 

 long gallop. Their limbs are too massive and short, and 

 are not sufficiently detached from the body to give them 

 free play. Lions have been called "the most cat-like of all 

 cats," and for the most part these animals ambush or stalk 

 those creatures which they kill. 



When a lion impelled by hunger leaves his lair, he some- 



