The Heptarchy of the Cats. 2>7 



gomery comes nearer to the actual sound when he calls it a 

 "groan." As a matter of fact, it is something between a 

 cough and a groan. 



Is the lion or the tiger the superior in courage and 

 strength ? There is little evidence on record to help us to 

 a decision, but all that there is is completely in favour of 

 the tiger. The two animals have often been put together 

 to fight, but the lion has invariably declined the combat. 

 They have accidentally got into each other's cages, and 

 the tiger has killed the lion. Feats of strength are authen- 

 ticated of the tiger to which the lion can, on evidence, lay 

 no claim ; and as regards their comparative courage in the 

 presence of man, the evidence goes to prove the superiority 

 of the tiger. Says Livingstone, for instance, " Lions would 

 seem to be inferior in power to the Indian tiger." For 

 myself, then, I give the preference without hesitation to 

 the tiger. 



Yet in the poets the tiger forms, of course, part of tlie 

 courtier-retinue of the Hon — "Gaunt wolves and sullen 

 tigers in his train " (Collins) — for the lion, as Spenser, Allan 

 Ramsay, and others state, defeated the tiger in single com- 

 bat, when the prize was the sovereignty of the animal world. 

 Cowley speaks of the lion as thirsting for tigers' blood, and 

 again of the " dreadful " (that is, full of dread) tiger trembling 

 at even the slumbering lion — 



" When ht lies down the woods a dreadful silence keep, 

 And dreadful tigers tremble at his sleep." 



Southey, imitating this fancy, does the same, and speaks of 

 tigers " trembling " while the lion sleeps ; while several others 

 describe the two as meeting, and the tiger giving way. 

 Thus "Wilson — 



" The shaggy lion rushes to the place, 

 With roar tremendous seizes on his prey. 

 Exasp'rate see ! the tiger springs away, " . 



