32 TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



mane overhangs the breast and shoulders of this noble creature like a 

 royal mantle. The tip of the tail is ornamented with a tuft of hair. 



3. Mode of Life. — Like all cats, the lion spends the day in idle 

 repose, lying asleep in a pit dug out by himself or in Borne protecting 

 thicket ; but after sunset, when the bright stars of the tropical sky shed 

 their soft light upon the sleeping earth, he rouses himself for his 

 murderous vocation. " With a thunderous roar he announces his setting 

 out for the nightly hunt ; all the other lions who hear the sound from 

 afar reply in concert, but all other animals are seized with fear. The 

 howling hyaena grows dumb ; the leopard ceases its growling ; the 

 monkeys begin to utter gurgling sounds, and fly terror-stricken into 

 the highest branches ; the lowing herd becomes silent as death ; the 

 antelopes in mad, flight burst through the bushes; the camel trembles 

 under its load, and, ceasing to obey its driver's voice, throws load and 

 rider off and seeks safety in speedy flight ; the horse rears and snorts, 

 and with inflated nostrils rushes away ; the dog, fawning, seeks protection 

 with his master ; and even the man on whose ears falls for the first time 

 the voice of the lion in the aboriginal forests questions whether he be 

 bold enough to meet the creature that sends forth such thunderous 

 tones." 



The lion frequently prowls in the neighbourhood of a native kraal, a 

 white man's farm, or the camps of hunters and travellers, and seizes 

 horses and cattle. The immense muscles of the animal's jaws, shoulders 

 and forelegs give it enormous strength. It is able to drag an animal 

 of the size of a buffalo or an ox for a considerable distance, although 

 incapable of lifting such a carcaBe entirely off the ground, but when 

 undisturbed will feed where it has killed its prey. Its spring carries 

 its heavy body for several yards, and it leaps over a palisade without 

 difficulty. It can gallop with great speed, and when enraged has often 

 been known to overtake and pull down a fast horse urged by his rider to 

 his utmost effort. Experts tell us that a single lion in one year can 

 inflict damage to the amount of two or three hundred pounds. Little 

 wonder that so fierce a bandit is relentlessly pursued, and, in fact, in 

 the more settled regions of South Africa the lion has been exterminated. 



In districts where no cattle are reared the lion obtains its food in a 

 different manner. Where some murmuring brook breaks through the 

 desert sand or the hard soil of the sun-burnt steppe, safely hidden in the 

 thicket, he lies in ambush for the beasts of the desert — the fleet antelope 

 and gazelle, the giraffe and the zebra. Woe to any creature that 

 approaches with the wind ! Scarcely has it bent down "to cool its parched, 

 loose-hanging tongue in the waters of the lagoon," when forth springs 

 its terrible foe. Under the gigantic weight of its fierce rider (up to about 



