113 



THE BEASTS OF PREY. 



being to be playful. She was not treacherous, and 

 even when she was punished, would, after a few min- 

 utes, come and want to be friends again. In Cairo 

 she forgot herself twice ; once she caught a Lamb, 

 and another time a little Negro Boy. Fortunately, I 

 was near to rescue him, and she never thought of 

 resisting me. I walked in the street leading her with 

 a line, and on my passage from Cairo to Triest I 

 brought her on deck daily to the great pleasure of all 

 passengers. I left her in Berlin and did not see her 

 for two years. Then I visited her and she recognized 

 me instantly. I have no reason to doubt the many 

 similar stories we hear about captive Lions. 

 Great Damage Nobody will be astonished at the fact 

 Done ' that the Africans seek to exterminate 



by Lions. t he Lion with all their might and 

 main. Yet, the dread of the Lion is not so great as 

 one might think. Even in regions where he lives he 

 is by no means met with daily. He is not forever 

 breaking into camps, but also seeks food in the wil- 

 derness. He makes himself actually useful to some 

 tribes by his hunting. The Bushmen owe him many 

 a juicy meal, and wherever a Lion has hunted they 

 search the country high and low, and often find the 

 remains of his meal, which are very welcome. They 

 sometimes go so far as to chase the Lion away from 

 his prey, so as to have more meat left for themselves. 

 North Africans also complain but little about the 

 Lion. They talk about his depredations, yet not 

 with rage at the loss of Cattle they have suffered 

 or expect to suffer, but take them as a dispensation of 

 Providence which has to be borne resignedly. Set- 

 tlers of European extraction set a different valuation 

 on property than the simple-minded Africans. Jules 

 Gerard has estimated that in the year 1855 about 

 thirty Lions which inhabited the province of Con- 

 stantine caused a damage of 135,000 marks. In the 

 years 1856 and 1857 the same writer tells us that sixty 

 Lions in Bona carried away ten thousand head of 

 Cattle of all sizes. In the centre of the continent the 

 damage is considerably slighter, as Cattle are bred 

 much more extensively than in the countries where 

 agriculture prevails. 



Methods In the Atlas country the Lion is hunted 

 of Hunting in various ways. If he molests a Bed- 



the Lion. ouin camp, the Men surround the bushes 

 in which he has hidden and try to drive him out by 

 screams and shots. When he finally appears, they 

 cripple him with so many bullets that he usually falls 

 down, though he sometimes mutilates or kills a few 

 of his pursuers before he dies. The Arabs some- 

 times dig a hole and then cover it well, leaving only 

 holes for shooting through, and then a freshly killed 

 Boar is thrown on it; or else they lie in ambush on 

 trees and shoot from these places of safety. In the 

 Atlas country Lions are also caught in pitfalls, which 

 are about ten yards deep and five yards wide. As 

 soon as the kingly animal falls into the pit, it is sur- 

 rounded by a crowd. Everybody screams at the top 

 of his voice, insults the Lion and throws stones at 

 it, until at last it is killed. When it is quite dead, 

 it is tied with ropes and hauled up with great diffi- 

 culty, for a full-grown Lion may weigh as much as 

 four hundred pounds. Every boy eats a piece of the 

 heart, for this is supposed to make him courageous. 

 The hairs of the mane are worn as charms, as they 

 are believed to protect their wearer from other Lions. 



Ancient The Bible mentions the Lion in a great 

 Accounts of many places and the Hebrews have a 



the Lion. number of names for him. The Greeks 

 and Romans give us lengthy reports of the kingly 



animal, intermingling them with many fables. The 

 first fight with Lions was given by Scasvola, the 

 second by Sulla. He had one hundred Lions in the 

 arena, Pompey had six hundred and Julius Caesar at 

 least four hundred. Their capture was a difficult 

 feat, and mostly accomplished by means of pitfalls. 

 Under Claudius a shepherd found an easy method 

 of capturing Lions. He threw his coat over the 

 Lion's head, which so bewildered the animal that it 

 could easily be taken prisoner. This method was 

 afterwards repeatedly used in the circus. Marc An- 

 tony, after the battle of Pharsalus, drove through the 

 town with an actress in a chariot drawn by Lions. 

 Hanno, the great Carthagenian, was the first to drive 

 a tamed Lion. This was the cause of his exile, for 

 it gave rise to the belief that he who tamed a Lion 

 would surely attempt to reign over the people. 

 Adrian had often as many as one hundred Lions 

 killed at a single performance, and so had Marcus 

 Aurelius. In this way their numbers were so greatly 

 reduced that hunting them was prohibited in Africa, 

 in order that there might be sufficient for the circus. 

 Still the hour of extermination of this noble animal 

 did not begin until the invention of firearms. 



LEOPARDS AND PANTHERS. 



Since Aristotle and Pliny naturalists have had dif- 

 ferences of opinion about three Old World Felidae, 

 regarding them either as varieties of the same spe- 

 cies, or as three distinct species. 



Distinguishing The Leopard (Felts pardus) has the 

 Features of following distinguishing features: his 

 the Leopard. tota i length is about six feet, of 

 which the tail takes two feet or more. The head is 

 large and round, the snout projects but little, the 

 neck is very short; the limbs are of medium length 

 and the paws not very large. The ground color is a 

 pale reddish yellow which is darker on the back, but 

 merges into yellowish-white at the throat and breast 

 and on the inner surface of the limbs. In this ground 

 color are strewn small, black, full circular spots, vary- 

 ing in size from that of a pea to that of a walnut. 

 Some of them unite to form bands, others lie in 

 irregular patches, and some form rings, enclosing a 

 darker tawny area. The markings of the lower and 

 inner surfaces of the limbs consist either of plain or 

 double spots. The outside of the ear is gray-black, 

 with a large whitish spot at the tip; the eye has a 

 greenish-yellow iris and a round pupil. Neither sex 

 nor old age influences the markings very much; but 

 some individual specimens are darker or even quite 

 black. One kind has a lustrous brownish-black skin 

 whose spots show only in the sun. It is called Gesela 

 in Abyssinia and is much hunted for its skin. 



Characteristics The Panther (Felts pantkera) is usu- 

 of the ally about seven feet long, including 



Panther. the tail, which measures about three 

 feet. The head is of moderate size, the snout pro- 

 jects distinctly, the neck is short, the limbs are very 

 powerful in proportion to the body and the paws are 

 large. The ground color is a light, ochre yellow; on 

 the back it merges into a dark reddish yellow and 

 under the body and on the inner sides of the limbs it 

 fades into a yellowish white, like the Leopard's; but it 

 is much more vivid in tinge. The spots on the head 

 are smaller and less numerous. Besides the head, 

 only the nape and sides of the neck, and the throat, 

 chest and the upper parts of the limbs show distinct 

 spots. In the other parts of the body several spots 

 are grouped around a lighter centre. These group- 

 ings are larger in size than those of the Leopard. 



