A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes: including mammals, birds and fishes — John Shaqi
A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes: including mammals, birds and fishesHumphreys, Phebe Westcott
History
A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes: including mammals, birds and fishes
Humphreys, Phebe Westcott
Natural history -- Juvenile literature
Dr. Livingstone says: “The same feeling which has induced the modern
painter to caricature the Lion, has led the sentimentalist to consider
the Lion’s roar the most terrific of all earthly sounds. We hear of the
majestic roar of the king of beasts. It is, indeed, well calculated to
inspire fear, if you hear it in combination with the tremendously loud
thunder of that country, on a night so pitchy dark that every flash of
the intensely vivid lightning leaves you with the impression of
stone-blindness, while the rain pours down so fast that your fire goes
out, leaving you without the protection of even a tree, or the chance of
your gun going off. But when you are in a comfortable house or wagon,
the case is very different, and you hear the roar of the Lion without
any awe or alarm.
“The silly Ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet it never was feared by
man. To talk of the majestic roar of the Lion is mere majestic twaddle.
On my mentioning this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted; so
I have been careful ever since to inquire the opinions of Europeans who
had heard both, if they could detect any difference between the roar of
a Lion and that of an Ostrich. The invariable answer was that they could
not, when the animal was at a distance. The natives assert that they can
detect a variation between the commencement of the noise of each. There
is, it must be admitted, a considerable difference between the singing
noise of a Lion when full, and his deep gruff voice when hungry. In
general, the Lion’s voice seems to come deeper from the chest than that
of the Ostrich; but to this day I can distinguish between them with
certainty only by knowing that the Ostrich roars by day and the Lion by
night.”
“Attempts to deprive the Lion of his prey are of frequent occurrence in
the interior of Africa. Indeed, it is no unusual thing to find a number
of natives residing near such pools of water as are frequented by
Antelopes, other wild animals, and their constant attendant, the Lion,
subsisting almost altogether in this way, or on carcasses which the Lion
has not had time to devour before the return of day, when it is his
habit to return to his lair.”
Mr. Anderson mentions, as a remarkable circumstance connected with a
Rhinoceros hunt, that “While following the trail of the animal, we came
to a spot where one or two Lions, probably taking advantage of his
crippled condition, had evidently attacked him, and, after a desperate
scuffle, had been compelled to retreat. This is the only instance I know
of Lions daring to attack a Rhinoceros, though I have seen it stated in
print that they will not only assail, but can master the horned
monster.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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