44 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

having a shorter tail, and being streaked down the back like
a tiger. The next is the lynx, of the size of a fox, with its
body streaked, and the tips of its ears tufted with black.
Then comes the Persian lynx, not so large as the lynx, nor
mottled like it, but with longer ears, tipped also with black,
and the serval, shaped and streaked like the lynx, but not
having the tips of its ears tufted. Lastly, the cat, wild and
tame, with all its varieties; less than any of the former, but
like them insidious, rapacious, and cruel.

The Lion. The lion is known as the King of Beasts;
though modern travellers have done much to rob him of
the homage that he once received. Like a human being
who has been too much lionized, he suffers from the detrac-
tions which are excited by his pre-eminence. He is found
chiefly in India and Africa, though he once had a more
extended range. He was well known to the Greeks, and
appears in both their poetry and history. Homer celebrates
him, and according to Herodotus he exploited himself by
attacking the camels of the army of Xerxes. His noble
appearance is said to be responsible for the popular ideal of
his character, which travellers and naturalists declare to be
minus the magnanimous and generous qualities with which
it was at one time credited.

The Lion’s In judging of the lion’s character it is import-

Character. ant to remember that he belongs to the cat family,
and that his virtues and vices are naturally of the cat kind.
“The lion seldom runs,” says the author of “ Tales of Animals.”
“He either walks or creeps, or, for a short distance, advances
rapidly by great bounds. It is evident, therefore, that he
must seize. his prey by stealth; that he is not fitted for an
open attack; and that his character is necessarily that of
great power, united to considerable skill and cunning in its
exercise.” Again, the lion, as well as others of the cat
tribe, takes his prey at night; and it is necessary, therefore,
that he should have peculiar organs of vision. In all those