424 



QUADRUPEDS. 



almost confined to Africa and some neighbouring parts of Asia. The majestic air, 

 proud look, and noble gait of the lion at once proclaim him monarch of the desert, 

 where he reigns supreme and uncontrolled. His strength is prodigious : with a single 

 blow of his paw he will break the back of a horse ; he can clear at a bound a space of 

 thirty feet, and drags to great distances even the largest bullocks. His terrible roar 

 resounds through the mountains like rolling thunder, and startles his trembling prey 

 from their concealment. This roar is hollow and deep, but when infuriated, he utters 

 another cry, not less frightful, but short, broken, and reiterated. Nothing can be more 

 dreadful than the appearance of the lion when he prepares for combat. He lashes his 

 flanks with his long tail, his mane becomes erect and bristling, enveloping his whole 

 head, his enormous eyebrows half conceal the pupils of his flashing eyes ; he bares his 

 teeth and shows his spine-clad tongue, at the same time protruding his claws, which 

 are as long as a man's finger. The lioness is destitute of a mane : she goes with young 

 five months, and produces but one brood in the year; her whelps are generally from 

 two to four in number; the parent nurses them with great assiduity, and attends them 

 on their first excursions in search of prey. 



The Royal Tiger (Fells Tigris), the scourge of India, is as large as the lion, but 

 with a more elongated body and rounder head, of a bright tawny colour above, and 

 pure white underneath, with irregular black stripes across the back. Its strength and 

 the rapidity of its movements are such that, during the march of an army, it has been 

 known to snatch a horseman from his saddle, and carry him off into the recesses of the 

 Avoods, without the possibility of rescue. The tiger's mode of seizing his prey is by 

 concealing himself from view, and springing with a terrific roar upon his victim, which 

 he carries off, and tears to pieces, after having first sucked the blood. The tigress 

 produces four or five young at a litter. When robbed of her cubs, her rage knows no 

 bounds: braving every danger, she pursues her plunderers even to the very gates of 

 buildings, and when the hope of recovering them is lost, she expresses her agony by 

 hideous and terrific howlings. 



The Jaguar, or American Tiger [Fdis onca), is nearly as large as the Ori- 



