THE TEMPER OF ANIMALS 
3 21 
the buffalo and the two-horned black rhinoceros. The 
last is really ferocious, charging down on any creature, 
man or beast, without provocation, and capable of 
inflicting mortal wounds even on the lion, the 
elephant, or its own kind. 
But among all the larger creatures of the animal 
kingdom, it is difficult to find more than a dozen 
species which are, as a class, ill-tempered, unless 
we include all those carnivorous animals which ex- 
hibit a certain ferocity in the capture of their prey. 
But it will be found that, apart from this law of 
their being, such animals are not, as a rule, either 
ill-tempered or malicious. On the contrary, their 
natural bias is towards good-nature, and it may be 
inferred that the fierceness exhibited by them when 
actually striking their prey, is rather a gradual de- 
velopment from a particular necessity than an essential 
part of their nature. The good-humour of the 
lions and other felidce was well illustrated by a scene 
at the Zoo a few weeks ago. The young lion from 
Sokoto was much intent on breaking in the iron 
shutter which separates the house it now occupies 
from its former quarters next door. Apart from the 
very proper wish to assert a right to its former 
domicile, it had the irritating stimulus supplied by an 
ill-tempered and decrepit old leopard, which was 
growling on the other side of the shutter, and even 
went so far as to insert one of its longest teeth into 
the crack between the shutter and the wall, as a 
reminder to the lion of what was waiting for it on the 
other side. The lion was striking constant heavy 
Y 
