110 BEASTS AND MEN 
tween the beasts themselves are more frequent, unless they 
are carefully watched and separated from each other when 
necessary. And among the lower animals, as with ourselves, 
the trouble usually arises over the gentler sex. In a troupe 
which Heinrich Mehrmann exhibited in Chicago, Berlin, and 
elsewhere, there was a fine lion called ‘“‘ Leo” and a great 
Bengal tiger called “Castor”. The lion was a bachelor, 
while the tiger was mated to a beautiful Bengal tigress. As ill- 
luck would have it, when the breeding time arrived the tigress 
proved an irresistible attraction to the lion. The tiger, natur- 
ally irritable, and perhaps not unreasonably jealous, regarded 
the lion’s proceedings with disapproval, and the relations be- 
tween the two rivals became strained. The tiger was as 
jealous as a Turk ; the lion as determined as the consciousness 
of his own strength could make him ; the tigress was prepared 
impartially to receive the attentions of either. One morning, 
as I was walking in my Zoological Garden at Neuer Pferde- 
markt, I heard a terrific roaring which proceeded from the 
direction of the great open-air cage. I immediately hurried 
to the spot. Sure enough, a bloody duel was taking place 
between the lion and the tiger. Both were standing on their 
hindlegs and were giving each other such mighty boxes on 
the ears that their hair was already scattered about. The 
sight of the two great animals standing in battle array, and on 
the point of rushing into a life-and-death struggle, I shall never 
forget. They were, however, much too valuable for this love 
intrigue to be allowed to end with the death of either of them. 
The keeper of this division, who happened to be near, sprang 
into the little front cage and from thence into the big cage 
where the animals were, and succeeded in separating the com- 
batants by shouting and cracking his whip. Many tufts of 
hair and pools of blood were left to show where the fight had 
been. 
All carnivores, but especially lions and tigers, are ex- 
tremely ill-tempered at breeding times. In trained troupes, 
where both lions and lionesses are necessary, it is frequently — 
