44 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



having a shorter tail, and being streaked down the back like 

 a tiger. The next is the lynx, of the size of a fox, with its 

 body streaked, and the tips of its ears tufted with black. 

 Then comes the Persian lynx, not so large as the lynx, nor 

 mottled like it, but with longer ears, tipped also with black, 

 and the serval, shaped and streaked like the lynx, but not 

 having the tips of its ears tufted. Lastly, the cat, wild and 

 tame, with all its varieties ; less than any of the former, but 

 like them insidious, rapacious, and cruel. 



The Lion. The lion is known as the King of Beasts; 

 though modern travellers have done much to rob him of 

 the homage that he once received. Like a human being 

 who has been too much lionized, he suffers from the detrac- 

 tions which are excited by his pre-eminence. He is found 

 chiefly in India and Africa, though he once had a more 

 extended range. He was well known to the Greeks, and 

 appears in both their poetry and history. Homer celebrates 

 him, and according to Herodotus he exploited himself by 

 attacking the camels of the army of Xerxes. His noble 

 appearance is said to be responsible for the popular ideal of 

 his character, which travellers and naturalists declare to be 

 minus the magnanimous and generous qualities with which 

 it was at one time credited. 



The Lion's In judging of the lion's character it is import- 

 Character. an t to remember that he belongs to the cat family, 

 and that his virtues and vices are naturally of the cat kind. 

 " The lion seldom runs," says the author of " Tales of Animals." 

 " He either walks or creeps, or, for a short distance, advances 

 rapidly by great bounds. It is evident, therefore, that he 

 must seize his prey by stealth; that he is not fatted for an 

 open attack; and that his character is necessarily that of 

 great power, united to considerable skill and cunning in its 

 exercise." Again, the lion, as well as others of the cat 

 tribe, takes his prey at night; and it is necessary, therefore, 

 that he should have peculiar organs of vision. In all those 



