SELF-MUTILATION. ^9 



claws arc turned against its own person ; it crushes 

 its paws, and it breaks its talons, as if it wished to 

 be the author of its own annihilation. It is a verit- 

 able suicide, but which the weapons provided by 

 Nature do not permit it to consummate." 



The fact that the lion, when, disabled by wounds, 

 it is prevented from either attacking or fleeing 

 from its enemies, mutilates itself in the manner de- 

 scribed above, is not, I believe, uncommon. Sir 

 Samuel Baker, indeed, records an instance to this 

 effect that came under his own eye ; for when de- 

 scribing (as will hereafter be seen) the dying moments 

 of a lioness, he says : " Occasionally in her rage 

 she bit her own paws violently, and then struck 

 and clawed the ground."* 



* Something of the kind described by Dclegorgue and Sir Samuel 

 Baker occurs, I take it, with other beasts besides the lion in their 

 death- struggles. Once indeed, I myself saw a. large and badly 

 wounded bear rear itself up on its hind legs against a young spruce 

 pine, which it very deeply scored with its fangs ; and when at a dis- 

 tance of some thirty or forty paces I killed it whilst in that posi- 

 tion. ED. 



