6 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



other animals, or which has succumbed to a natural death, the 

 Cats creep upon their victims with a characteristic stealth and 

 patience, and seldom pursue the chase if their first deadly 

 spring has missed its mark. They never hunt in packs, 

 although Lions have been observed to combine with one another 

 to drive their prey in the direction where others are awaiting it, 

 and generally pursue their victims singly, except in the earliei 

 stages of their existence, when they often go in couples. A 

 peculiar and, at the same time, most unpleasing trait of most or 

 all the members of the Family, is their habit of playing with and 

 torturing their victims before finally despatching them, as if 

 to prolong the pleasure and excitement of the chase. 



Regarding their method of hunting and capturing their prey, 

 Jardine writes that " morning and evening are the times when 

 it is chiefly sought, and it is either crept upon by stealth or 

 lain in wait for. Near to the passes in the thick forests, the 

 edges of the jungle, the banks of the springs and rivers, where 

 the beasts daily seek for water, are situations favourable for the 

 exercise of their perfidious ambuscade ; when the prey ap- 

 proaches, the animal gathers his strength for the spring, and 

 by a succession of leaps, or by one immense bound, seldom 

 fails in reaching the object. Or if the creature has to be 

 approached, the assailant becomes flattened, as it were, and, 

 crouching, advances swiftly but imperceptibly ; the velvety- 

 feeling pads of the toes touch the ground without noise ; the 

 eyes, gleaming on the prey, see no obstruction, but the slightest 

 hindrance is told by the sensitive whiskers. The measured 

 distance is gained, and the muscles of the animal are braced 

 for the fatal spring j a roar or yell thrills through the victim, 

 and overpowers its faculties; an instinctive terror renders 

 strength or swiftness of foot equally unavailing, and it is borne 

 off felled and unresisting to some neighbouring thicket, where 

 it can be devoured in quiet. 



