REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
67 
divided attention to her valuable foster child. Whizzy proved herself to 
be a very good mother. All her love "was spent on her nurseling, and 
as it grew bigger and bigger her pride in it also swelled visibly. The 
love was mutual, as it was discovered when an attempt was made to 
separate the pair after the cub was weaned. The dog fretted, but it 
is to be feared that would not have counted had not the lioness had 
something to say in the matter. She sulked and moped so badly that 
in order to save her from illness they were forced to give her back her 
little friend. A second and a third time they were separated, with like 
results. Indeed, when a determined attempt was made the third time 
to break the comradeship the consequences were very nearly serious, 
for she would not forget and would not eat, so that in despair the 
keepers were forced to reunite them. This was the more surprising 
because the lioness was not in any way a pampered baby. The terrier 
did not believe in selfish children, and so she trained the cub to come 
after her seniors, not before, and to wait until her elders were served 
at meal times. For the three years that they lived together the lioness 
was one of the best trained babies any mother ever had. 
As was to be expected, great interest was taken by the public in 
the presence of a little dog in the cage with a full-grown lioness, and 
newcomers to the gardens were sure to go to the keepers with a dozen 
questions about it. The general enquiry was made in great excite- 
ment: 
“When will the lion kill the dog? Is that the way you feed it?” 
Tired of entering into particulars for the thousandth time, they 
would say : 
“Feeding time is half-past three. You just wait!” 
Those who waited until half-past three would see the tiny creature 
dominate the one that could have swept her out of existence by a blow 
of her paw had she so desired. 
Both dog and lioness waited most impatiently for the feeder. When 
he came he always had two pieces of meat in his hand, a small piece 
for the dog, and a great bone for the lioness. Whizzy, all excitement 
and noise, was given hers first. This was grabbed, and with one bound 
was deposited in the far corner of the cage. Another bound brought 
her back to where the keeper was pushing in the shin. This, almost 
as big as Whizzy, would be snatched too, the lioness not daring to 
interfere. With a great effort the little terrier dragged it to where 
the scrap of dog’s meat was lying, and then she would mount guard 
over both pieces, and bark her warnings to the lioness to have patience 
and wait. The snap, snap, snap, at the big creature continued until 
