CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 163 



they would do well to take note of it so as to 

 escape the reproach of having tracked their 

 lions only in the studio. The lion's roar 

 does not impress everyone alike, since some 

 of us are more sensitive to sound than others. 

 Thus, some folk are curiously disturbed by the 

 scritching of bats, while others do not even 

 hear it. Much of the terror commonly in- 

 spired by the voice of the lion depends on the 

 circumstances in which it is heard. Those 

 who hear it in the Zoo, knowing themselves 

 perfectly safe, cannot be troubled by it as were 

 the Christian martyrs waiting for their dreadful 

 death in the Roman amphitheatre. Heard at 

 night in the forest, or on the veldt, its vibra- 

 tion shakes the earth, yet some travellers have 

 found it no more terrible than the booming 

 note of the ostrich, and even in the lower 

 animals familiarity with lions may soon breed 

 contempt. The elands and buffaloes that live 

 in the paddocks close to the Lion House in 

 the Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park 

 munch their hay, perfectly indifferent to the 

 terrific roaring close by, paying no more at- 

 tention to it than they do to the strains of the 

 band, though on their native veldt such music 

 would send them scampering in headlong 

 flight. The lion has several notes, purring on 

 ordinary occasions like the great cat it is, but, 

 when angry or wounded, coughing and " wuff- 



