6 LLOYD'S NAMPRAL 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 earliet 
stages of their existence, when they often goin 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 ; 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. 
