IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 41 



walls, save where the doors open in front and behind. To give light 

 and air, there is a ventilator on the roof, secured with wrought-iron 

 bars and bolts. The outer dens, which are almost all of equal dimen- 

 sions, except the two at each end, are closed on three sides and on the 

 top with wrought-iron gratings, the fourth side being formed by the 

 front wall of the inner chamber. The wrought-iron gratings are made 

 of one inch thick rods; those for the front and sides being placed at an 

 interval of three inches apart: the rods are crossed and strengthened by 

 flat iron bars placed at an interval of two feet from each other. A door- 

 way, closed by a suspended grating, communicates between the inner 

 and the outer dens ; there is similar lateral communication between the 

 front dens. To prevent the animals from fighting through the bars while 

 in the outer dens, the gratings separating them have been lined with 

 planks. To enable the keepers to get access to the dens for the purposes 

 of cleaning and other work, a man-hole has been provided on the top 

 of each cage. A broad verandah runs along the southern front of 

 the house. Inside each inner den is a wooden platform for the 

 animals to sit or lie upon, and a zinc vessel for drinking-water is clamped 

 on to the grating of the door at the back of the inner chamber. 



During the winter all the animals are shut into their inner apart- 

 ments every night, and are let out to the outer dens much later in 

 the morning than at other seasons. A small quantity of straw is 

 also given them in the outer dens in this season, so that they may sit 

 or lie upon it instead of on the bare cold floor. In the summer and 

 during the rains, unless the day is exceptionally wet, the doors between 

 the inner and outer dens are left open, so that the animals may pass in 

 or out as they wish. 



The two sets of dens at the east end of the house are generally 

 assigned to the lions. There is every possibility that a place where 

 a number of large carnivora are kept will become dirty and the 

 atmosphere around it offensive, unless cleanliness is thoroughly and 

 constantly attended to. Early every morning, therefore, the outer 

 dens are swept clean and a weak solution of carbolic acid or phenyle 

 is sprinkled wherever sweepings have to be removed. The animals are 

 then turned out of the inner dens, and, unless the morning is very cold 

 or heavy rain has fallen, these dens are thoroughly washed out, and in 

 cold weather the straw bedding is changed ; at about 10 o'clock in the 

 morning the animals are shut in and the outer dens are washed clean : 

 by about 11, when the floors have dried, the grated doors are raised, 

 so that the animals may pass to and fro at pleasure. A jemadar 

 patrols the house always, and the rule is that sweepings should be 

 removed without delay and the carbolic solution applied. 



Twice a month all the dens are washed with soap and water. It 

 is also of importance, as a sanitary precaution, to whitewash the walls 

 of the inner dens whenever they become dirty or when a death takes 

 place in any of them. 



Food. — Beef forms the principal food of the lions as well as of 

 the other large carnivora. If the meat is good, a daily allowance 

 of 12 to 14 pounds, including the bones, is enough for a full- 

 grown animal; as, however, good beef is dear, and not always obtainable, 

 Inequality has to be made up in quantity, and as much as 16 to 18 



