AFRICAN LION.
This lion is almost in the attitude of those sculptured by Sir Edwin Landseer for the Nelson Monument, but the feet are turned in, and not lying flat.
CHAPTER II.
THE CAT TRIBE.
Though only one species is entirely domesticated, and none of the Cats have flesh edible by man, except perhaps the puma, no group of animals has attracted more interest than this. Containing more than forty species, ranging in size from the ox-devouring tiger or lion to the small wild cats, they are so alike in habit and structure that no one could possibly mistake the type or go far wrong in guessing at the habits of any one of them. They are all flesh-eaters and destroyers of living animals. All have rounded heads, and an extraordinary equipment of teeth and of claws, and of muscles to use them. The blow of the forearm of a lion or tiger is inconceivably powerful, in proportion to its size. A stroke from a tiger's paw has been known to strike off a native's arm from the shoulder and leave it hanging by a piece of skin, and a similar blow from a lion to crush the skull of an ox. The true cats are known by the power to draw back, or "retract," their claws into sheaths of horn, rendering their footsteps noiseless, and keeping these weapons always sharp. The hunting-leopard has only a partial capacity for doing this.
By permission of Herr Carl Hagenbeck, Hamburg.
AN UNWILLING PUPIL.
This is one of Herr Hagenbeck s famous performing tigers.