25S 



VERTEBRATA. 



BUFFALO GORING A LIOX. 



destructiveness — the very qualities which constitute their glory — arm the world against them, and 

 will be the means of their final extirpation. Formerly they were found in Europe, for Herodotus 

 tells as that the camels of Xerxes, in his invasion of Greece, were attacked by lions in what is 

 now the Turkish province of Roumelia. But they have long since disappeared from Europe, and 

 even from Egypt^ Palestine, and Syria, where they were once common. The various allusions to 

 - animals in the Sacred Scriptures prove a familiarity with the habits of the race. Even in 

 Asia, excepting >ome districts of Arabia, and parts of Persia and India, these magnificent beasts 

 are very rare. The war that mankind has incessantly waged against them has thinned their 

 ranks, and probably not only the lion, but the tiger, the rhinoceros, and the giraffe, will ere long 

 become extinct. In forty years a thousand lions were taken to ancient Rome, and perished in 

 the fights of the arena. In more modern times the use of fire-arms has made constant havoc 

 among these animals wherever they have come in contact with man. "Within a few years the 

 spirit of Nimrod has led various mighty hunters, such as Harris, Gumming, Anderson, Gerard, 

 and others, into the wilds of Africa in pursuit of the enormous animals which teem in those 

 solitary regions ; and by these daring men, not only elephants, giraffes, hippopotami, buffaloes, and 

 rhinoceroses, but lions have been slaughtered almost like rabbits. Everywhere the work of 

 destruction goes on, and year hy year the lion becomes more rare. A century hence he will 

 probably be among those creatures that all have heard of, but which it has been the fortune of 

 few to behold, bat-, mice, and mosquitos will flourish long after the lion has become a mere 

 tradition. Such is the glory of the King of Beasts — a glory founded in fear, and beget- 

 ting universal hate. Perhaps the glory of some other kings may, in future ages, be likened 

 thereunto. 



The Tiger, or Royal Tiger, Felii tigris, stands next the lion in size ; if the latter is a model 

 of strength and grandeur, the former is the personification of beauty and grace. This animal is 

 so common in the menageries, that we need only give a short description of it. The body is 



