The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.Bennett, Edward Turner
History
The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.
Two of these noble animals, the one male and the other female, are
among the most striking and attractive ornaments of the Menagerie.
The beautiful male, of which our figure offers a characteristic
likeness, is a very recent importation, having arrived in England in
the month of April of the present year, in the East India Company’s
ship Buckinghamshire, to the commander of which, Captain Glasspool, we
are indebted for the following particulars relative to his birthplace,
capture, early life, and education. He was taken prisoner in company
with two other cubs, supposed to be not more than three weeks old, on
that part of the coast of the peninsula of Malacca which is opposite to
the island of Penang, and is commonly known by the name of the Queda
Coast. In our present imperfect acquaintance with this part of the
farther peninsula of Hindoostan, it affords perhaps but little ground
for surprise that none of these terrible animals should have previously
reached this quarter of the globe from a locality so seldom visited by
European vessels. Their existence in its extensive jungles and marshy
plains has long, however, been notorious; and to judge from the specimen
now before us, which, although barely two years old, already exceeds in
size the full-grown Asiatic Lion which occupies the neighbouring den,
they must in that situation be at least as formidable as their fellows of
the hither peninsula. The dam of this individual had, it appears, made
a nocturnal incursion into one of the towns of the district, from which
she had carried off a large quantity of provisions. She was pursued and
killed, and her three cubs were taken possession of by the conquerors
in token of their victory and brought home in triumph. One of them,
a female, died shortly after; the second, a male, is still living in
the possession of a resident at Penang; and the third, the subject of
the present article, also fell into the hands of a gentleman of that
settlement, in whose paddock he was confined, in company with a pony
and a dog, for upwards of twelve months, without evincing the least
inclination to injure his companions or any one who approached him. By
this gentleman he was presented to Captain Glasspool, who brought him to
England: on the voyage he was remarkably tame, allowing the sailors to
play with him, and appearing to take much pleasure in their caresses.
On being placed in his present den he was rather sulky for a few days;
but seems now to have recovered his good temper, and to be perfectly
reconciled to his situation. The mildness of his temper may probably
be in a great measure due to his having from a very early age been
accustomed to boiled food; raw flesh never having been offered to him
until after his arrival in the Menagerie. This change of food he seems
particularly to enjoy, although he has by no means lost his appetite for
soup, which he devours with much eagerness. Notwithstanding his immature
age, Mr.
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