The Lion 101 



fence of his family " he will face a thousand men." This 

 is a rhetorical flourish, and yet now when it has become 

 the fashion to call the creature a poltroon, the statement 

 as it stands is better supported by proof than almost any 

 other that has been made concerning its character. If 

 this animal is not brave, nobody is in a position to call it 

 cowardly. All the evidence tends the other way. Taken 

 as it is, looked upon as a brute to whom heroism, senti- 

 ment, and high resolve must be as impossible as righteous- 

 ness, the lion preserves the demeanor of courage better 

 than any other member of the Felidce. 



Moffat, Lichtenstein, Freeman, Rath, Galton, say with 

 W. C. Kerr (" The Far Interior ") that " when a lion is 

 thoroughly hungry there is no limit to his audacity and 

 daring." Every being must have some incitement to 

 action, and those motives which are most powerful with 

 lions appear to be anger and appetite. 



Postponing for the moment his relations with mankind, 

 let us see what kinds of game the lion is accustomed to 

 prey upon. No coercion can be exercised in this direc- 

 tion. Actual starvation might take away liberty of choice, 

 but, as a rule, it must be admitted that a selection of this 

 kind is significant of the opinion which an animal has of 

 its own powers, as it also is of its boldness. The giraffe, 

 which lions occasionally kill, is entirely defenceless : so 

 with elands and all antelopes. This is likewise the case 

 with those domestic animals which are devoured. It has 

 been said that the elephant is sometimes attacked, but 

 this is one of those stories which only display the igno- 

 rance of those who propagate them. The black and white 



