NATURAL BISTORT. 



1 So when a lion shakes his dreadful mane, 

 And angry grows, if he that first took pain 

 To tame his youth approach the haughty beast, 

 He bends to him." WALLER. 



the cat, seize their prey silently, and growl while they devour it. 

 In these cases the growl is probably dictated by a fear of losing 

 what they have seized, and as a menace to others of their own 

 species who might seek to steal it from them. 



216. Why are the pupils of the eyes of carnivorous animals 

 variously shaped? 



Because the various habits of the animals require a different 

 e* erase of the faculty of sight. The round pupil, contracting from 

 a large to a very small orifice, is found in animals which have 

 occasion to use the eyes with nearly equal readiness in all directions 

 vertical, horizontal, or oblique ; the eye with the upright pupil 

 is found in those animals which have most occasion to use their 

 eyes in a vertical plane, especially above them ; and eyes with 

 the horizontal axis is found in those which have most occasion 

 to use them in the horizontal plane. 



217. Thus in the dog, which ranges the wide field for its subsistence, the pupil i* 

 round; in the cat, which, in a state of nature, feeds in copses, either upon small 

 quadrupeds upon the ground under it, or on birds in the branches above, has the 

 greatest power of the eyes in the vertical direction; and in the hare, which has 

 most occasion for view in the lateral direction only, the pupil contracts to a hori- 

 zontal line. This is even more remarkable as between the lion and the tiger ; the 

 former, though he hides in bushes and thickets, generally preys upon animals 

 which are in the open places, and also has his haunt in places so bare as that he can 

 see what is going on about him, has the pupil round. The tiger, on the other hand, 

 which frequents the grassy bottoms of jungles, where the vegetation interrupts tlie 

 lateral view, has the pupil elongated in the vertical direction.* 



218. Wliy does the lion lie in wait for the giraffe in tlit 

 neighbourhood of water ? 



Because when the giraffe stoops to drink it is obliged to assume 

 a position from which it cannot readily start, while it loses the 

 advantage of the large and watchful eyes which, when its head 

 is erect, at once detect the approach of the enemy from any 

 direction. 



219. WTiy are there creatures of carnivorous habits in all th* 

 classes of the animal kingdom? 



Because the prolific tendency of the herbivorous races would, f 



Partington's " Cyclopaedia." 



i 



