724 



CAT. 



easily worn off, but whether in such cases it is again 

 reproduced, has not been ascertained. 



Some general notion of the form and bearing of the 

 lion, when standing at gaze, or not excited, may be 

 derived from the figure at the top of the plate " CATS;" 

 but no figure or description can adequately represent 

 the excited animal in full nature. 



The general colour of the lion is tawny yellow, 

 with the inane and the brush a little darker, and more 

 inclining to sooty black, and there is generally some 

 trace of the dorsal line remaining. The naked skin 

 about the muzzle, and the pads on the paws are dark 

 coloured, but not a deep or entire black. It is not 

 very easy, however, to describe lions by colour, for 

 they are subject to considerable variations in different 

 places, and perhaps also in different individuals of the 

 same locality. Thus, in Southern Africa there are 

 lions with the mane nearly black, and very shaggy, 

 while those which are found in India are all over of a 

 uniform yellow colour, and have comparatively little 

 mane. 



The range of the lion, as at present found, may be 



described as extending from the secondary hills on 



the south of the Himalaya to the southern extremity 



of Africa, though it is not very probable that they are 



met with to the north or east of the great Asiatic 



chain of mountains. In the earlier periods of history 



we have evidence that they were plentiful in all the 



more thinly-peopled districts of Asia, to the south ol 



the great central ridge ; and that they were both 



frequent and dangerous visitants in some of the more 



inhabited places. In those times, that part of the 



world was much more fertile than it is at present 



and that though many parts of it were much more 



thickly peopled than they are now, the intermediate 



places between the different kingdoms and states 



which were comparatively small, and at very frequent 



hostility with each other, were of a very differen 



character from the deserts which are now to be me 



with. We have evidence that there was much more 



cover for lions, and, which is more to the purpose 



more food for antelopes, wild asses, and those othe 



animals of comparatively warm and dry, but not abso 



lutelv barren places upon which lions chiefly subsist 



There are accounts by the ancients of lions being 



numerous in Syria, and even in Asia Minor ; and i 



is possible that they existed in the middle ages, am 



may still exist in many places of that country where 



they have not been observed. The name of the lion 



is a familiar one in all the languages of the nation 



throughout the whole extent which we have men 



tioned as forming their range ; and the case of India 



is one which should make us pause before we decide 



that there are no lions in the wild places of thos 



countries where there is cover and food for them. Ir 



the days of the glory of the Indian empire, when th 



country was very generally peopled and cultivated 



lions had long ceased to be met with, and they wer 



described as being wholly extinct. But it appear 



that the remains of them had been only banished int 



the most inaccessible and least known parts of th 



country. For no sooner had the internal wars, b; 



which India was so long disturbed and distractec 



depopulated large tracts of the interior, and allowe 



them to revert to a state of jungle, than the lions mad 



their appearance, and afforded a complete proof tha 



though reduced, they never had been exterminatec 



But they keep more in the wilds than tigers, and ar 



neither so bold nor so active, though their spring i 



tiore terrible, and their teeth and claws more powcr- 

 il ; and thus they were not seen while people were 

 ut too familiar with the ravages committed by their 

 ongeners. 



All the power of the lion, great as it is, is concen- 

 rate'l in the fore part ; and though the stroke or 

 he clutch of the paw, at close quarters, is rather a 

 erious matter, the lion in free nature is, like the 

 irds of prey with their stoop, truly formidable only 

 n his spring. 



The roar of the lion, for the production of which 

 here is a very peculiar organisation of the throat, is 

 very terrific, deep, solemn, and heard afar, and 

 tartling to all the animals of the wild. It is not 

 uttered during the day, at least till the sun is set, or 

 nearly so ; and it is said to be given most powerfully 

 when the evening sky is murky, and the clouds 

 threaten a storm during the night. These are favour- 

 te times for the grazing animals which form the lion's 

 prey, and it is said thai he betakes himself to an emi- 

 nence, and sounds his terrific battle charge, in order 

 to startle those animals, and enable him to find out 

 the place where they are by the sound of their feet 

 while they .attempt to trot off to places of safety. 

 But after the roar has given him the necessary infor- 

 mation, the lion steals softly and silently upon the 

 sound, crawling upon his belly from bush to bush, or 

 from thicket to thicket ; and the unsuspecting herd 

 are not aware of their danger till the yell is given, 

 and contemporaneously with that, the spring is taken, 

 and the victim secured. 



Unless when wounded, irritated, or pinched by the 

 extreme of hunger, the lion does not attack parties 

 and caravans with the same boldness and determina- 

 tion as the tiger. But he will follow, stealing and 

 prowling for a much longer distance, and the nature 

 of his haunts require it, as they do not abound so 

 much in cover as those of the tiger. 



There are numerous instances mentioned of the 

 courage, the kindness, the docility, and many other 

 qualities of the lion in a state of confinement ; but all 

 these are of little value in the natural history of 

 the animal ; and therefore, though space admitted, 

 we should hardly force them upon the notice of our 

 readers. They of course do not in any way alter the 

 character of the lion ; though they may be received 

 as additional proofs of the otherwise well-established 

 and indeed self-evident proposition, that the powers 

 of the lion are never brought into play unless there 

 is a sufficient exciting cause ; and the same may be 

 said of every other land animal with which we are 

 acquainted. 



The majority of those animals which civilised man 

 can domesticate with advantage, must, however, 

 always be those which feed upon vegetable matter, 

 whether their labour or their flesh be the object for 

 which they are domesticated. This follows as a 

 necessary consequence of the cultivation of the 

 ground always being the chief means to which 

 civilised nations must have recourse for their support. 

 In this respect, the vegetable-feeding animals and 

 man work well together because the refuse of human 

 food answers in part for the food of those animals; 

 they supply manure better adapted than any other 

 for increasing and preserving the fertility of the 

 fields ; and those plants which are more exclusively 

 used for food to sucn animals, instead of exhausting the 

 land, improve its condition, and render it more pro- 

 ductive of human food than it otherwise would be. 



