274 Wild Beasts 



he came to his guardian, followed him about, and lay 

 beside him. Moreover, the little savage was jealous. If 

 he beheld a dog it always put him in a passion to see 

 it coming towards his master to be caressed. He would 

 fly to get ahead, dance about, jump on his knee, and growl 

 and show his teeth with every sign of anger against the 

 intruder upon his rights. 



Colonel Julius Barras (" India and Tiger Hunting ") 

 speaks of the jealousy shown by tiger cubs in his possession, 

 but whereas he was satisfied that this was an expression of 

 tenderness towards himself, the writer thinks it more 

 likely to have been an exhibition of selfishness. Gato 

 manifested at a very early age an appreciation of his own 

 possessions, and a determination to do things after his 

 own fashion. So far from checking this by force, his 

 guardian encouraged it, and after having come to a clear 

 understanding with him on the subject of biting and claw- 

 ing, left him alone to follow his own devices. He was a 

 very sagacious personage, and there was not a drop of 

 cowardly blood in his whole body. When he was a baby 

 there was little to distinguish him, while at rest, from some 

 domestic cats, but he no sooner began to move about than 

 his free wild air, the unmistakable style of savagery that 

 stamped every action, showed him in another way. It 

 may be added that, being left free to exhibit his individ- 

 uality, and not having his family and personal characteris- 

 tics marred or masked by enforced restraint until the 

 creature grew dull, apathetic, and half imbecile, he was as 

 pretty a specimen of feline peculiarity as any one could 

 expect to see. Nothing was clearer to him than that the 



