feeling of interest in the welfare of their 

 offspring. 



It is otherwise, however, with beasts of prey, 

 and for obvious reasons. With herbivorous 

 animals, the food of the mother, and of the young- 

 animal, so soon as it is able to graze, is at hand ; 

 and no exertions of the male could contribute any 

 additional facilities to its rearing. The habits 

 also of gregarious animals sufficiently provide 

 for the safety of the herd without the special 

 attention of the males to any particular female. 

 But beasts of prey almost invariably live in soli- 

 tude, their food has to be sought uncertainly and 

 at a distance. Frequently it requires long watch- 

 ing to secure their prey, and when discovered, it 

 is not obtained without both danger and toil. 

 The male, accordingly, among carnivorous ani- 

 mals, is generally found constant to one female, 

 and continues with her until their offspring 

 are reared. 



Even in captivity, the lioness becomes very 

 fierce and savage, so soon as she has cubs; and in 

 a state of nature, both parents guard their young 

 with the greatest jealousy. In ordinary cases, 

 unless when pressed by hunger, the lion does not 

 readily attack man, when unassailed by him; 

 but when watching their young, all such fear 

 ceases, and the suddenness of their attack is 

 terrible. Mr. Bennet relates that in the com- 

 mencement of the year 1823, General Watson, 

 while on service in Bengal, was out one morning 

 on horseback, armed with a double-barrelled 

 rifle, in search of sport. While riding along, he 

 was suddenly surprised by a large lion, which 

 bounded out upon him from the thick jungle, 

 at the distance of a few yards. Fortunately, he 

 retained his presence of mind, and firing with a 

 steady aim, the shot took complete effect, and 

 the monster fell dead at his feet. But no sooner 

 had the lion fallen, than the lioness sprang out 

 from the same jungle, and bounded towards the 

 assailants. A second shot from the General's well- 

 directed rifle, wounded her severely, and she 

 retreated into the thicket. It was concluded 

 from the appearance of both together, that the 

 den could not be far distant, and the party ac- 

 cordingly followed on the track of the lioness, 

 and traced her to her retreat, where she was 

 speedily despatched^ Here they found two 

 beautiful little cubs, a male and a female, appa- 

 rently only a few days old, which they brought 

 away with them. They were suckled by a goat, 

 and afterwards sent by the General to England, 

 as a present to George IV., by whose command 

 they were lodged in the Tower. 



When the young begin to share in the spoils 

 of the chase, the lioness becomes devoid of all 

 fear : she attacks indiscriminately whoever comes 

 within her reach, and fights with peculiar fury 

 in their defence. Many stories have been told 

 about the generosity and fidelity of the lion; but 

 though he appears to exhibit the parental in- 

 stincts with considerable force, the nobility of 

 disposition otherwise ascribed to him, has no just 

 foundation, and the tiger only surpasses him in 

 fierceness from superior courage, and also fre- 

 quently from greater strength. The strength 

 however of the lion, is not greatly inferior to 

 that even of the great Bengal tiger, and but for 

 the immense advantage which the rifle supplies, 



it would scarcely be possible to venture on a 

 direct attack. To carry off a man, is a feat which 

 he accomplishes apparently with the utmost ease ; 

 and a Cape lion has been known to seize a heifer 

 in his mouth, and though the legs dragged on 

 the ground, it seemed to carry off its prey with 

 as much ease as a cat does a rat, leaping over a 

 broad dyke with it, without the least difficulty. 

 In one case, where a lion was pursued when thus 

 loaded with a heifer, the mounted hunters con- 

 tinued the chase for five hours, and during the 

 whole period the carcass appeared only twice to 

 have been laid down. 



The great fecundity of the rabbit, the sow, and 

 other animals, which form the prey of the car- 

 nivora, and the immense herds of the buffalo, 

 wild horse, antelope, and other herbivorous ani- 

 mals which furnish the like supplies to the 

 largest of the savage tribe above described, show 

 how strikingly the defencelessness of their nature 

 is compensated for by other means, and thus 

 what may be termed the balance of creation, is 

 uniformly preserved. The peccaries, for example, 

 which abound in the extensive forests of South 

 America, and subsist on roots and other vegeta- 

 ble food, which they obtain by burrowing in the 

 ground, congregate in numerous bands. The 

 white-tipped peccaries, especially, are said to 

 roam about in herds exceeding a thousand in 

 number; and should an unfortunate huntsman 

 venture to attack them when thus congregated, 

 he is sure to be surrounded by the whole herd, 

 and torn to pieces with their tusks, unless he 

 succeeds in getting up a tree out of their reach. 

 Hunters have sometimes been kept prisoners for 

 many hours, surrounded in this manner by the 

 infuriated herd, the members of which seem to 

 require courage from their numbers, as small 

 bands of peccaries exhibit no such daring or 

 pertinacity, but are readily put to flight by very 

 slight resistance. 



The American bison, in like manner, occupies 

 the vast uninhabited parts of North America; 

 extending from Hudson's Bay to Louisiana and 

 the frontiers of Mexico, and forms an abundant 

 source of supply both to the wild hunter and to 

 the beasts of prey. Modern travellers concur in 

 bearing testimony to the almost incredible num- 

 bers of the herds of the bison which assemble on 

 the banks of the Misssouri. Captain Lewis 

 remarks : " Such was the multitude of these ani- 

 mals, that although the river, including an island 

 over which they passed, was a mile in length, 

 the herd stretched, as thick as they could swim, 

 completely from one side to the other ;" and he 

 estimates the moving multitude on another oc- 

 casion, at not less than twenty thousand. Dr. 

 James, another intelligent observer, tells us that 

 " in the middle of the day, countless thousands 

 of them were seen coming in from every quarter 

 to the stagnant pools." The spring-bok, the nyl- 

 ghau, the Indian antelope, and numerous other 

 herbivorous animals, including the elephants of 

 the Asiatic and African continents, are found 

 always in numerous herds, and roam in social 

 freedom over the vast unoccupied regions of the 

 old world. 



Such is the remarkable contrast everywhere 

 seen between the most powerful carnivorous and 

 herbivorous animals. In the present economy of 



