24 
CARNIVORA. 
from being lacerated by the animaPs tongue ; and 
Major Smith informs me he has seen a young man 
stand upon a lioness, drag her round the cage by the 
tail, open her jaws, and thrust his head between her 
teeth. 
A keeper of wild beasts at New York had pro- 
vided himself, on the approach of winter, with a fur 
cap. The novelty of this costume attracted the notice 
of the lion, which, making a sudden grapple, . tore 
the cap off his head as he passed the cage ; but per- 
ceiving that the keeper was the person whose head 
he had thus uncovered, he immediately lay down. 
The same animal once hearing some noise under its 
cage, passed its paw through the bar, and actually 
hawled up the keeper, who was cleaning beneath ; 
but as soon as he perceived he had thus ill-used his 
master, he instantly lay down upon his back in an 
attitude of complete submission. 
The lion, while feeding, will exhibit a more dis- 
interested courage than most of the carnivora. When 
the prey is thrown to him at one corner of the cage, 
and the keeper holds up a stick at the bars of the 
opposite side, the animal will instantly quit his food 
to attack the disturber of his meal ; but if the same 
thing be done to the tiger, he will lie close upon his 
food, snort, give shrill barkings, and at most just rise 
to fly at the stick, and then drop upon his meat 
again. 
Unlike some of the carnivorous animals, which 
appear to derive a gratification from the destruction 
of animal life beyond the mere administering to the 
