ally in the colour of the mane. In the
one it is black or dark brown--in the other of a tawny yellow, like the
rest of the body.

Of all lions, those of South Africa are perhaps the largest, and the
black variety the most fierce and dangerous.

Lions inhabit the whole continent of Africa, and the southern countries
of Asia. They were once common in parts of Europe, where they exist no
longer. There are no lions in America. The animal known in
Spanish-American countries as the lion (_leon_) is the cougar or puma
(_Felis concolor_), which is not one-third the lion's size, and
resembles the king of beasts only in being of the same tawny colour.
The puma is not unlike a lion's cub six months old.

Africa is peculiarly the country of the lion. He is found throughout
the whole extent of that continent--excepting of course a few thickly
inhabited spots, from which he has been expelled by man.

The lion has been called the "king of the forest." This appears to be a
misnomer. He is not properly a _forest_ animal. He cannot climb trees,
and therefore in the forest would less easily procure his food than in
the open plain. The panther, the leopard, and the jaguar, are all
tree-climbers. They can follow the bird to its roost, and the monkey to
its perch. The forest is their appropriate home. They are forest
animals. Not so the lion. It is upon the open plains--where the great
ruminants love to roam, and among the low bushy thickets that skirt
them, that the lion affects to dwell.

He lives upon flesh,--the flesh of many kinds of animals, though he has
his favourites, according to the country in which he is found. He kills
these animals for himself. The story of the jackal being his
"provider,"--killing them for him,--is not true. More frequently he
himself provides the skulking jackals with a meal. Hence their being
often seen in his company--which they keep, in order to pick up his
"crumbs."

The lion "butchers" for himself, though he will not object to have it
done for him; and will take away their game from wolf, jackal, or
hyena--from the hunter if he can.

The lion is not a fast runner--none of the true _felidae_ are. Nearly
all the ruminant animals can outrun him. How, then, does he capture
them?

By stratagem, by the suddenness of his attack, and by the length and
velocity of his bound. He lies in wait, or steals upon them. He
springs from his crouching place. His peculiar anatomical structur