Such is the earnestness and perseverance displayed by the sagacious creatures while accomplishing their task, that supervision might almost be thought superfluous; but as soon as the eye of the keeper is withdrawn, their innate love of ease displays itself, and away they stroll lazily to browse, or to enjoy the luxury of fanning themselves and blowing dust over their backs.
LEOPARD AND CHEETAH.
CHAPTER XXXV.
TROPICAL FELIDÆ.
The Lion—Conflicts with Travellers on Mount Atlas—The Lion and the Hottentot—A Lion taken in—Narrow Escapes of Andersson and Dr. Livingstone—Lion-Hunting by the Arabs of the Atlas—By the Bushmen—The Asiatic Lion—The Lion and the Dog—The Tiger—The Javanese Jungle—The Peacock—Wide Northern Range of the Tiger—Tiger-Hunting in India—Miraculous Escape of an English Sportsman—Animals announcing the Tiger’s Presence—Turtle-Hunting of the Tiger on the Coasts of Java—The Panther and the Leopard—The Cheetah—The Jaguar—The Puma—The smaller American Felidæ—The Hyæna—Fables told of these abject Animals—The Striped Hyæna—The Spotted Hyæna—The Brown Hyæna.
The majestic form, the noble bearing, the stately stride, the fine proportions, the piercing eye, and the dreadful roar of the Lion, striking terror into the heart of every other animal, all combine to mark him with the stamp of royalty. All nerve, all muscle, his enormous strength shows itself in the tremendous bound with which he rushes upon his prey, in the rapid motions of his tail, one stroke of which is able to fell the strongest man to the ground, and in the expressive wrinkling of his brow.
No wonder that, ever inclined to judge from outward appearances, and to attribute to external beauty analogous qualities of mind, man has endowed the lion with a nobility of character which he in reality does not possess. For modern travellers, who have had occasion to observe him in his native wilds, far from awarding him the praise of chivalrous generosity and noble daring, rather describe him as a mean-spirited robber, prowling about at night-time in order to surprise a weaker prey.
The lion is distinguished from all other members of the feline tribe by the uniform colour of his tawny skin, by the black tuft at the end of his tail, and particularly by the long and sometimes blackish mane, which he is able to bristle when under the influence of passion, and which contributes so much to the beauty of the male, while it is wanting in the lioness, who, as everyone knows, is very inferior in size and comeliness to her stately mate.
His chief food consists of the flesh of the larger herbivorous animals, very few of which he is unable to master. Concealed in the high rushes on the river’s bank, he lies in ambush for the timorous herd of antelopes which at nightfall approach the water to quench their thirst. Slowly and cautiously the children of the waste advance; they listen with ears erect, they strain their eyes to penetrate the thicket’s gloom, but nothing suspicious appears or moves along the bank. Long and deeply they quaff the delicious draught, when suddenly, with a giant spring, like lightning bursting from a cloud, the lion bounds upon the unsuspecting revellers, and the leader of the herd lies prostrate at his feet.