36 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



>^?L- 



A FOSTER-MO TI1KR 



This is a remarkable photograph of a setter suckling three lion cubs which 

 had lost their mother. It is reproduced here by permission of the Editor 

 of the Irish Field 



come so numerous in the sparsely inhabited or 

 altogether uninhabited parts of Africa, that they 

 would first have exterminated all the game on 

 which they had been wont to prey, and would 

 then have had to starve or to have eaten one 

 another. But such a state of things has never been 

 known to occur; and whenever Europeans have 

 entered a previously unexplored and uninhabited 

 tract of country in Africa, and have found it 

 teeming with buffaloes, zebras, and antelopes, 

 they have always found lions in such districts 

 very plentiful indeed, but never in such numbers 

 as to seriously diminish the abundance of the 

 game upon which tiny depended for food. 



once-uninhabited plains, this practice 

 brought them into conflict with the white 

 colonists or native herdsmen armed with 

 weapons of precision, before whom the)' 

 rapidly succumbed. 



To-day lions are still to be found 

 wherever game exists in any quantity, and 

 their numbers will be in proportion to those 

 of the wild animals on which they prey. 



The indefinite increase of lions must 

 be checked by some unknown law of 

 nature, otherwise they would have be- 



I.IONESS AND CUB 



Lion cubs thrive both in Dublin and Amsterdam, but not so tvcll at the Lonaon Zoo 



B> f-.rmis.in ,t H.rr Carl Hjgtnool] {Hamburg 



A PERFORMING LION 



Lions, it ivould seem, are capable of being taught almost anything, 

 even tricycle-riding 



It is easy to understand 

 that the increase of a herd 

 of herbivorous animals would 

 be regulated by the amount 

 o| the food-supply available, 

 as well as constantly checked 

 by the attacks of the large 

 carnivora, such as lions, 

 leopards, cheetas, hysenas, and 

 wild dogs; but I have never 

 been able to comprehend 

 what has kept within bounds 

 the inordinate increase of 

 lions and other carnivorous 

 animals in countries where 

 for ages past they have had 

 an abundant food-supply, and 

 ai the same time, having 



