[1283] EB, 11th edition, “The number of cubs at a birth is from two to four, usually three.”
[1284] Ibid. “The lion ... seldom attacks his prey openly, unless compelled by extreme hunger.... He appears ... as a general rule only to kill when hungry or attacked, and not for the mere pleasure of killing, as with some other carnivorous animals.”
[1285] EB, “Though not strictly gregarious, lions appear to be sociable towards their own species.”
[1286] Also Aristotle, IX, 44.
[1287] EB, 11th edition, “On no occasions are their voices to be heard in such perfection, or so intensely powerful, as when two or three troops of strange lions approach a fountain to drink at the same time.”
[1288] Ibid. “He, moreover, by no means limits himself to animals of his own killing, but, according to Selous, often prefers eating game that has been killed by man, even when not very fresh, to taking the trouble to catch an animal himself.”
[1289] For instance, I found the passage in Royal 12-E-XVII, but not in Royal 12-F-VI.
[1290] Aristotle, instead of Experimentator, in Egerton 1984 and Arundel 323. Of the small amount of marrow in lions’ bones Aristotle treats twice, Historia animalium III, 7 and 20.
[1291] I am told, however, that in a recent moving picture lions are seen climbing trees to escape from dogs.
[1292] HL 30: 367.