HABITS OF THE LION. 23 



All vanish, and the Lion feeds alone ; 



So swarm' d the Trojan powers numerous and bold, 



Around Ulysses, who with wary skill 



Heroic combated his evil day. 



But Ajax came, covered with his broad shield 



That seemed a tower, and at Ulysses' side 



Stood fast; then fled the Trojans wide-dispersed." 



Shakspere has the same idea, when he says 



" Lions make Leopards tame." 



The magnanimity of the Lion is a very well-worn theme. Every one knows all about Androcles 

 and the Lion ; " the tale is somewhat musty " by this time. All the older poets have something about 

 it the writers of the golden age before natural selection was thought of, and when animals of many 

 kinds were credited with a vast amount of idyllic amiability, of which, alas ! nobody believes them 

 capable now. 



In the exqxiisite woodland scenery of " As You Like It," a hungry Lioness that has just suckled 

 her whelps, is accredited with a nobility to which she, assuredly, had no title. " A green and gilded 

 Snake " has been frightened from the sleeping Oliver by Orlando 



" it unlinked itself, 



And with indented glides did slip away 



Into a bush : under which bush's shade 



A Lioness, with udders all drawn dry, 



Lay couching, head on ground, with Cat-like watch, 



When that the sleeping man should stir, for 'tis 



The royal disposition of that beast 



To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead." 



We are not anxious to know when and how Shakspere gained his knowledge of wild beasts ; we 

 possess his descriptions, and that suffices for us. He may make Athenians speak like his fellow 

 Englishmen ; place Bohemia by the sea-side, and have the forest of Arden peopled with Lions. All 

 that is of the least importance ; for, may we not say of him, what he makes Helena say to Hermia 1 



" your tongue's sweet air, 



[Is] More tuneable than Lark to shepherd's ear, 

 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear." 



The Lion is a solitary animal, hunting alone, except from the commencement of the breeding 

 season, when his wife goes with him, up to the time when the babies are beginning to know how to 

 take care of themselves. Until they have arrived at months of discretion, " the Lion tears in pieces 

 enoxxgh for his whelps and strangles for his Lionesses, and fills his holes with prey and his dens with 

 ravine." 



The Lion's den is made by scraping away the surface of the earth in some secluded spot, where 

 the beast remains as long as game is plentiful, and there is no one to disturb him. When he has used 

 up one hunting-ground, he departs for " fresh woods and pastures new." 



He hunts entirely by night, at which time it is not safe for any one, in a Lion neighbourhood, to 

 stir oxxt without firearms, for the Lion, with the laziness which distinguishes him, will always prefer man- 

 meat caught at once, to Antelope or Zebra-meat, for which he will have the trouble of looking. In the 

 daytime he spends most of the time in sleeping off his bloody carouse, and, until nightfall, is always 

 very unwilling to be disturbed, and unless molested hardly at all dangerous, except in the breeding 

 season. This seems curious, as, from the ferocity of the animal when he is attacked, or when he is 

 catering for himself by night, it savours of the marvellous to talk of such a savage being harmless 

 under any circumstances. But there can be no doubt about the fact ; he seems to object to expose his 

 actions not only to the light of day, but also to that of the moon. For this, we have the testimony of a 



