Behind Iron Bars 



the maternal examination may be 

 thorough. Let us hope it is. I have no 

 quarrel with this lot, any more than I 

 have with mice or other vermin! They 

 can't help being here, nor being what 

 they were born to be. I just don't care 

 for them. That's all. 



The giant cats are a moody lot, and 

 the barometric pressure or something 

 else seems to affect them all alike 

 that is to say, they are all in the same 

 frame of mind apparently at the same 

 time. They will either all be asleep, or 

 all striding along the bars, or all play- 

 ful, or all "sore" about something dur- 

 ing the same hour. That pair of lion 

 pups will play like kittens if they get 

 any encouragement from the rest of 

 the family, and I have seen old Father 

 Leo there in the corner cage as fine 

 a specimen of the real Numidian 

 monarch as you are apt to find in all 

 Africa have a lot of fun with a 

 younger brother in the adjacent box. 

 He was holding his big joint of raw 

 [i33] 



