CAT KIND. 411 



drupeds in the same field, he only attacks the 

 latter, and never meddles with men, unless they 

 provoke him to engage. It is observed that he 

 prefers the flesh of camels to any other food ; he 

 is likewise said to be fond of that of young ele- 

 phants : these he often attacks before their trunk 

 is yet grown, and unless the old elephant comes 

 to their assistance, he makes them an easy prey. 



The lion is terrible upon all occasions, but par- 

 ticularly at those seasons when he is incited by 

 desire, or when the female has brought forth. It 

 is then that the lioness is seen followed by eight 

 or ten males, who fight most bloody battles with 

 each other, till one of them becomes victorious 

 over all the rest. She is said to bring forth in 

 spring, and to produce but once a-year. " With 

 respect to the time of gestation, naturalists have 

 been divided, some asserting that the lioness 

 went with young six months, and others but 

 two. The time also of their growth and their 

 age have hitherto been left in obscurity; some 

 asserting that they acquired their full growth in 

 three years, and others that they required a longer 

 period to come to perfection ; some saying (and 

 among this number is M. Buffon) that they lived 

 to but twenty, or twenty-two years at most ; others 

 making their lives even of shorter duration. All 

 these doubts are now reduced to certainty; for 

 we have had several of these animals bred in the 

 Tower ; so that the manner of their copulation, 

 the time of their gestation, the number they bring 

 forth, and the time they take to come to perfec- 

 tion, are all pretty well known. Although the 



