CHAP. i. THE KING OF BEASTS. 17 



ried it back to the further end of the den. " How dare 

 you touch my child ! " she seemed to say, or rather to 

 look. But Mr Nettleship, who knows lions and how to 

 paint them, to whom I mentioned this fact, observed, " I 

 dare say she was mightily afraid of you, and that was the 

 meaning of her look." So difficult is it to get at the 

 thoughts of animals. Only a short time ago two little 

 lions born at Clifton were sent out to some zoological 

 gardens in India ; which seems a little like sending coals 

 to Newcastle. 



At the age of a year or somewhat earlier they begin to 

 hunt for themselves, and then do a large amount of mis- 

 chief, since they kill not only to appease their hunger, but 

 to learn their trade. Like cats they often play with their 

 prey, allowing it to escape and pouncing upon it again. 

 This is often put down to wanton cruelty, but I think 

 erroneously. The cat or kitten plays with the mouse not 

 from innate cruelty, but for the sake of getting some 

 little practice in the most important business of cat life. 

 Only man, who has the capacity for nobler things, can be 

 cruel for cruelty's sake. 



You cannot watch the lion pacing to and fro in his den 

 without noticing how like a cat he is, not of course in his 

 colouring, but in his general build and gait. In the mane 

 indeed he has an ornament, and more than an ornament, 

 for it is probably a great protection to the neck in fighting, 

 to which puss cannot aspire. And it is said that the wild 

 lion seldom has so fine a mane as those we see in our 

 zoological gardens and menageries. His tail too has a 

 tuft of hair at the end, in the midst of which is a sharp 

 horny spike, with which, according to some old writers, 

 he goads himself to fury when he lashes his tail against 

 his flanks. The eye of the lion is much smaller in pro- 

 portion than that of the cat, and his muzzle is decidedly 



c 



