The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals; Mammals
The characteristics of a few species of the Cat tribe will now be given. As
there are at any rate forty-five species, this survey will have to be
somewhat incomplete.
The Lion, _F. leo_, differs from all other species by the mane of the male.
It is an inhabitant of Africa, India, and certain parts of Western Asia.
Within the historic period it ranged into Europe. According to Sir Samuel
Baker those of us who have not seen the Lion in his native haunts have
never seen a really magnificent specimen of the brute; but other travellers
disagree, and state that a captive Lion is often a finer animal--by reason,
of course, of good feeding. Unlike the majority of Cats, the Lion {394}
cannot climb. His roar (which is so suggestive, towards its end, of that
animal who once dressed himself up in his skin) is literally _after_ his
prey. The Lion, it is stated, does not roar except upon a full stomach. The
Lion is mainly nocturnal in its habits, and is said to be not in the least
dangerous if unprovoked in the daytime; but here again opinions differ. The
tail of the animal is provided at the extremity with a slight claw, but it
can hardly be sufficient for the animal to lash itself into a fury with it.
A Lion will live for thirty or forty years, and will breed freely in
captivity. The Gardens of the Zoological Society of Dublin have been famed
for their success in breeding Lions; but more surprising still, this has
been successfully accomplished in travelling menageries. The "desert"
colour of the Lion is familiar to all. It is stated that the likeness to
the parched soil of certain parts of Africa is greatly heightened by black
patches in the mane, for in certain regions of that continent the arid
yellow of the general environment is diversified by pieces of black lava.
It is apparently a popular delusion to speak of the Maneless Lion of
Guzerat. No doubt maneless Lions do come from there, but so do young and
maneless Lions from other places; in short, it is simply a question of age,
and old Lions from the Asiatic continent are as fully maned as those from
Africa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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