92 Wild Beasts 



traits with a result which is in every way beneficial to 

 the species. 



A great many young ones die while cutting their teeth. 

 If this has been accomplished safely, however, their edu- 

 cation begins immediately after that event. 



A lion does not reach maturity until the eighth year, 

 and he lives to be about forty. At the end of his second 

 year, however, the animal has attained considerable size, 

 strength, and agility, while his predatory tendencies are 

 then more freely indulged than at any subsequent period 

 of life. Up to the time at which mutual indifference 

 separates parents and offspring, the latter have been 

 directed and assisted in all things. Game has been found 

 for them, and methods of capture and killing have been 

 illustrated. Thus far experience has brought with it only 

 assurances of success. They have been incited to take 

 life for practice, encouraged to act when there was no 

 necessity for acting, guarded from the consequences of 

 temerity and incapacity. Therefore, when separation takes 

 place and they go forth alone, it is with an undue self-con- 

 fidence which often entails disaster. Young lions are 

 notoriously daring, destructive, and dangerous. 



There are many dogmatic and differing decisions with 

 regard to the manner in which lions seize, kill, and eat their 

 victims, as also in respect to the degree in which their 

 natural ferocity may be tempered by fear or discretion. 

 There must be, of course, a family likeness among them 

 in these particulars, but no such uniformity as has been 

 imagined can be found in their behavior when a wide 

 enough view is taken. 



