36 



The Living Animals of the World 



the once-uninhabited plains, this practice 

 brought them into conflict with the white 

 colonists or native herdsmen armed with 

 weapons of precision, before whom they 

 rapidly succumbed. 



To-day lions are still to be found 

 wherever game exists in any quantity, 

 and their numbers will be in proportion 

 to those of the wild animals on which 

 they prey. 



The indefinite increase of lions must 

 be checked by some unknown law of 



A FOSTER-MOTHER. 

 This is a remarkable photograph of a setter suckling three lion cubs which 

 hail lost their mother. It is reproduced here by permission of the Editor of 

 tlie Irish Field. 



nature, otherwise they would have become so 

 numerous in the sparsely inhabited or altogether 

 uninhabited parts of Africa, that they would first 

 have exterminated all the game on which they 

 had been wont to prey, and would then have 

 had to starve or to have eaten one another. 

 I'ut such a state of things has never been 

 known to occur ; and whenever Europeans have 

 entered a previously unexplored and uninhabited 

 tract of country in Africa, and have found 

 it teeming with buffaloes, zebras, and antelopes, 

 they have always found lions in such districts 

 very plentiful indeed, but never in such numbers 

 as to seriously diminish the abundance of the 



[Aberdten. 



Fhoto by G. W. Wilson it Co., Lid.) 



LIONESS AND CUB. 

 Lion cubs thrive both in Dulilin an. I .Vin.^u-nlani, but not so uell at tiie London Zoo. 



By pa-intssiOR of llevr Carl JIugiabeck) [Hamburg. 



A PERFOR.MISG LION. 



Lions, it would seem, are capable of being tiiught almost anything, 



even tricycie-riding. 



game upon which they de- 

 pended for food. 



It is easy to understand 

 that the increase of a herd 

 of herbi\'orous animals would 

 be regulated by the amount 

 of the food-sujiply available, 

 as well as constantly checked 

 by the attacks of the large 

 carnivora, such as lions, 

 leopards, cheetas, hy;enas, and 

 wild dogs ; but I have never 

 been able to comprehend 

 what has kept within bounds 

 the inordinate increase of 

 lions and other carnivorous 

 animals in countries where 

 for ages past they have had 

 an abundant food-supply, and 



