172 



THAT'S IT ; 



The lion is now limited to Africa, and parts of 

 Asia, but formerly it was more extensively 

 spread. The stern dignity of this noble animal, 

 his enormous strength, glowing eyes, and deep 

 roar, combine to render this terror of the desert 

 one of the most interesting members of the 

 mimal kingdom. Ths king of the forest is a 

 9 



508. 



term misapplied to this noble beast ; forests are 

 not his haunts, but burning desert plains and 

 wide karroos covered only with shrubby vege- 

 tation, or interspersed with tracts of low brush- 

 wood. In India it frequents the jungles and the 

 luxuriant borders of rivers, among which it 

 makes its lair. 



During the day the lion usually slumbers in 

 his retreat ; as night sets in he rouses from his 

 lair and begins to prowl. The nocturnal tem- 

 pests of rain and lightning which in Southern 

 Africa are of common occurrence, are to him 

 seasons of joy : his voice mingles with the roar 

 of the thunder, and adds to the confusion and 

 terror of the timid beasts upon which he preys, 

 and upon which he now advances with less 

 caution and a bolder step. In general, however, 

 he waits in ambush or creeps insidiously towards 

 his victim, which with a bound and a roar he 

 dashes to the earth. 



Of the strength of the lion we have most extra- 

 ordinary examples on record. To carry olf a 

 man— and this has but too often happened— is a 

 feat of no difficulty to this powerful brute. In- 

 deed, when we find that a Cape lion seized a 

 heifer in his mouth, and, though the legs dragged 

 upon the ground, carried her off with apparently 

 the same ease as a cat does a rat, leaping a broad 

 dyke with her without the least difficulty — that 

 another, and a young one too, conveyed a horse 

 about a mile from the spot where he had killed 

 it— that a third, which had carried off a two- 

 year old heifer, was followed on the track for five 

 hours by horsemen, who observed that through- 

 out the whole distance the carcase of the heifer 

 had only once or twice touched the ground, — we 

 may conceive that a man would be an insigni- 

 cant burden.* 



The tiger* 140, ranks with the 

 lion in strength, beauty, and 



* Kui^ht s Museum of Ai.im red Nature. 



ferocity. It is a native of the 

 warmer parts of Asia, and is 

 principally found in India and 

 the Indian islands. It is a 

 beautifully coloured and marked 

 animal, the upper parts of the 

 body being of a bright orange 

 yellow; the face, throat, and 

 under-part of the belly being 

 nearly white : the whole elegantly 

 striped by a series of transverse 

 black stripes, some of which are 

 single, and others double, 10; 

 those animals having io '£ 

 the largest number c§ 

 of double stripes are 

 considered the hand- 

 somest. The mark- 

 ings upon the head 

 of a tiger, 11, are 

 well worthy of notice. 

 They are distributed 

 over the head and 

 face in the manner 

 best calculated to 

 give expression to 5 °9- 

 the noble countenance of the 

 animal. Over the eyes they are 

 angular and arched; around the 



eyes they are annular; and 

 towards the nostrils they are 

 striped and spotted. 



