THE . . 

Living Animals

OF THE WORLD

A POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY

AN INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF BEASTS, BIRDS, FISHES
REPTILES, INSECTS, Etc., WITH AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES

VOL. I.

MAMMALS

BY

WITH

567 ILLUSTRATIONS

(INCLUDING 13 COLOURED PLATES)

FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

London: HUTCHINSON & CO., Paternoster Row

PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

VOL. I.

COLOURED PLATES.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

N.B.—The photograph of dolphins on page v was inadvertently attributed to Mr. F. G. Aflalo. The name of the photographer should have been Mr. T. Limberg, who kindly gave permission for his capital snap-shot to be reproduced in these pages.

The welcome accorded to "The Living Races of Mankind," of which the present work is the natural extension, would be a practical encouragement, if such were needed, to treat of the Living Races of Animals in like fashion. But the interest now taken in Natural History is of a kind and calibre never previously known, and any work which presents the wonders of the Animal World in a new or clearer form may make some claim to the approval of the public. The means at the disposal of those responsible for the following pages are, by mere lapse of time, greater than those of their predecessors. Every year not only adds to the stock of knowledge of the denizens of earth and ocean, but increases the facilities for presenting their forms and {ii}surroundings pictorially. Photography applied to the illustration of the life of beasts, birds, fishes, insects, corals, and plants is at once the most attractive and the most correct form of illustration. In the following pages it will be used on a scale never equalled in any previous publication. Without straining words, it may be said that the subjects photographed have been obtained from every part of the world, many of them from the most distant islands of the Southern Ocean, the great barrier reef of Australia, the New Zealand hills, the Indian jungle, the South African veldt, and the rivers of British Columbia. Photographs of swimming fish, the flying bird, and of the leaping salmon will be reproduced as accurately as those of the large carnivora or the giant ungulates. In accordance with the example now being set by the Museum of Natural History, the living breeds of domesticated animals will also find a place.

The time and expenditure employed in illustration will be equalled by the attention given to the descriptive portion of the work. The Editor will have the assistance of specialists, eminent alike in the world of science and practical discovery. Mr. F. C. Selous, for example, will deal with the African Lion and the Elephants, and other sportsmen with the big game of the Dark Continent. Mr. W. Saville-Kent, the author of "The Great Barrier Reef of Australia," will treat of the Marsupials of Australia and the Reptilia; Sir Herbert Maxwell will write on the Salmonidæ, and Mr. F. G. Aflalo on the Whales and other Cetacea of the deep seas; while Mr. R. Lydekker, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, Mr. W. F. Kirby, and other specialists have kindly agreed to supervise the work. Where possible the illustrations will show the creatures in their natural surroundings, and in all cases the {iii}photographic portraits of the animals will, by the nature of things, present true and living pictures, in place of the often curiously incorrect and distorted objects, the product of illustrators' fancy rather than the record of facts, not infrequently seen in previous illustrated natural histories.

It is possible that while these pages are in the press discoveries of new animals may be made, or living representatives of creatures supposed to be extinct may be discovered.^[1] One band of explorers is engaged in seeking on the plains of South America for recent remains and possible survivors of the giant ground-sloths. Another expedition is engaged, in the island of Java, in an even more interesting quest. Great as is the difference between even the lowest human intelligence and the mind of the man-like apes, the likeness both in form and action of the latter to man has never failed to suggest that there may have existed, or may even still exist, a higher anthropoid ape nearer to the human being than those now known. The idea has taken shape in the term "the missing link." The phrase is misleading in itself. Such a creature would be no more a link in the descent of man than one imperfectly developed limb of a tree is a link between the other branches and the stem. But it was always possible that we might find another branch which had attained a higher type than those terminating in the gorilla or chimpanzee. Recent search seems to have discovered the remains of such a creature.

In the island of Java, near one of the homes of the man-like apes of to-day, a naturalist, M. Dubois, employed by the Dutch Government, excavated some fossil-bearing gravels on a river called the Solo. These gravels belong to a period when civilised man, at any rate, did not exist. In them he found a great quantity of bones of mammals and of prehistoric crocodiles. There were no perfect skeletons, and it was fairly plain that the bodies of the creatures had been floated down the river, and there pulled to pieces by the crocodiles, just as they are in India to-day. In this place, lying within a distance of about fifteen yards from each other, he made an extraordinary discovery of animal remains. This was no less than the top of the skull of a creature much higher in development than the chimpanzee or gorilla, but lower than the lowest type of human skull. Near it were also found two of the teeth and one of the bones of the thigh. The thigh {vi}bone resembles very nearly that of a man, though Dr. Virchow, whom Englishmen remember in connection with the fatal illness of the German Emperor Frederick, considered it did not differ from that of one of the gibbons. The inference is that the creature walked upright; and this fact is recorded in its scientific name.

As regards the skull, some specialists in anthropology said that it was that of a large ape, of a kind of gibbon (a long-armed, upright-walking ape, described later), of a "higher anthropoid ape," and of a low type of man. Finally, Dr. Cunningham, the able secretary of the Royal Irish Zoological Society, said it resembled that of a "microcephalous idiot." It is rather strange if the remains of the first and only man found in the Lower Pleistocene should happen to be those of a microcephalous idiot, for out of many millions of men born there are perhaps only one or two of this type. Compared with the head of any of the living apes, it is very large. Its brain-holding power is about five to three compared with the skull of a gorilla, and two to one compared with that of a chimpanzee.

There is a tradition in Sumatra that man-like apes exist, of a higher character than the orang-utan. Pending the discovery of more remains, the following extract is worth quoting, as giving shape to current ideas about such creatures both here and among the Malays. They take form in a very curious and interesting book, called "The Prison of Weltevreden," written by Walter M. Gibson in the middle of the last century. His story is that he was kept in prison at Weltevreden, in Java, by the Dutch, after leading a life of adventure and enquiry among the islands of the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; that he came in his own small vessel to the Malay Archipelago, and spent some time in the interior of Sumatra, where he saw apparent evidences of semi-human beings. He saw the orang-utans in their native forest, and noted that they were covered with red hair, and was surprised at the slowness of their movements. Among some men engaged in building a stable for the raja, he saw "a dark form, tall as a middle-sized man, covered with hair, that looked soft and flowing; the arms, hands, legs, and feet seemed well formed, like the Malays'; the body was straight, and easily bore, on the right shoulder, the yoke of two heavy panniers filled with material for the building which was going on." Gibson says that "the eyes were clearer, the nose fuller, and the lips thinner than those of the common {viii}Malay, but the mouth was wide, the lips protruding, and a chin formed no part of its hairy face; yet it was pleasantly human in expression," much more so than the dirty, mottle-faced coolies and lascars he had seen. We quote the account, as showing, if true, that Gibson saw an anthropoid ape taught to work.

It may be a mere coincidence, but it is nevertheless somewhat remarkable that the two great black man-like apes, the chimpanzee and the gorilla, inhabit the same continent as some of the blackest races of mankind, while the red orang-utan is found in countries where the yellow-skinned Malay races of man are indigenous.

THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD.

BOOK I. MAMMALS.

APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS.

THE MAN-LIKE APES.

The Chimpanzee.

Of all the great apes the Chimpanzee most closely approaches man in bodily structure and appearance, although in height it is less near the human standard than the gorilla, 5 feet being probably that of an adult male.

Several races of this ape are known, among them the True Chimpanzee and the Bald Chimpanzee. The varieties also include the Kulo-kamba, described by Du Chaillu, and the Soko, discovered by Livingstone, who confounded it with the gorilla. But the variations in neither of these are sufficiently important to justify their being ranked as species.

The first authentic mention of the chimpanzee is found in "The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell." an English sailor taken prisoner by the Portuguese in 1590, who lived eighteen years near Angola. He speaks of two apes, the Pongo and the Enjocko, of which the former is the gorilla, the latter the chimpanzee. The animal was first seen in Europe in 1641, and described scientifically fifty-eight years later, but we are indebted {2}to Dr. Savage, a missionary, for our first account of its habits, in 1847.

The chimpanzee, like the gorilla, is found only in Africa. The range includes West and Central Equatorial Africa, from the Gambia in the north to near Angola in the south, while it occurs in the Niam-Niam country to the north-west of the great lakes, and has been discovered recently in Uganda. The new Uganda Railway, which will open out the great lakes to the east, will bring English travellers well within reach of the nearest haunt of these great apes. It is on the likeness and difference of their form and shape to those of man that the attention of the world has been mainly fixed.

The chimpanzee is a heavily built animal, with chest and arms of great power. The male is slightly taller than the female. The crown is depressed, the chin receding, the ridges which overhang the eye-sockets more prominent than in man, less so than in the gorilla. The nose has a short bridge, and a flat extremity. The ear is large, and less human than that of the gorilla. The hands and feet are comparatively long; the digits are, except the thumb and great toe, joined by a web. The arms are short for an ape, reaching only to the knees. The teeth are similar to those of man, and the canines of only moderate size. The chimpanzee has thirteen pairs of ribs, and, like man, has a suggestion at the end of the vertebræ of a rudimentary tail. It walks on all-fours, with the backs of its closed fingers on the ground, and can only stand upright by clasping its hands above its head. The skin is of a reddish or brown flesh-colour, the hair black, with white patches on the lower part of the face. The bald chimpanzee has the top front, and sides of the face bare, exceedingly large ears, thick lips, and black or brown hands and feet.

The chimpanzee's natural home is the thick forest, where tropical vegetation ensures almost total gloom. But near Loango it frequents the mountains near the coast. It is a fruit-feeding animal, said to do much damage to plantations, but the bald race, at all events in captivity, takes readily to flesh, and the famous "Sally" which lived in the Zoo for over six years used to kill and eat pigeons, and caught and killed rats. The male chimpanzee builds a nest in a tree for his family, and sleeps under its shelter; when food becomes scarce in the vicinity, a move is made, and a new nest built. This ape lives either in separate families or communities not exceeding ten in number, and is monogamous.

As to the animal's courage, it is difficult to get accurate information, as the sins of the {3}gorilla and baboon have often been laid on its shoulders, and information derived from natives is usually untrustworthy. Apparently the chimpanzee avoids coming into collision with man, although, when attacked, it is a formidable antagonist. Tales of chimpanzees kidnapping women and children need stronger evidence than they have yet obtained. The natives kill this ape by spearing it in the back, or by driving it into nets, where it is entangled and easily dispatched. According to Livingstone, the soko, as the chimpanzee is called in East Central Africa, kills the leopard by biting its paws, but falls an easy prey to the lion.

In captivity it is docile and intelligent, but usually fails to stand a northern climate for more than a few months. It is easily taught to wear clothes, to eat and drink in civilised fashion, to understand what is said to it, and reply with a limited vocabulary of grunts. Sally learnt to count perfectly up to six, and less perfectly to ten; she could also distinguish white from any colour, but if other colours were presented her she failed, apparently from colour-blindness. Of this ape the late Dr. G. J. Romanes wrote with something more than the enthusiasm of a clever man pursuing a favourite theme: "Her intelligence was conspicuously displayed by the remarkable degree in which she was able to understand the meaning of spoken language—a degree fully equal to that presented by an infant a few months before emerging from infancy, and therefore higher than that which is presented by any brute, so far at least as I have evidence to show." Romanes here speaks only, be it noticed, of ability to understand human speech—not to think and act. But this is in itself a great mark of intelligence on human lines. "Having enlisted the co-operation of the keepers, I requested them to ask the ape repeatedly for one straw, two straws, three straws. These she was to pick up and hand out from among the litter of her cage. No constant order was to be observed in making these requests; but whenever she handed a number not asked for her offer was to be refused, while if she gave the proper number her offer was to be accepted, and she was to receive a piece of fruit in payment. In this way the ape had learnt to associate these three numbers with the names. As soon as the animal understood what was required, she never failed to give the number of straws asked for. Her education was then completed in a similar manner from three to four, and from four to five straws. Sally rarely made mistakes up to that number; but above five, and up to ten, to which one of the keepers endeavoured to advance her education, the result is uncertain. It is evident that she understands the words {4}seven, eight, nine, and ten to betoken numbers higher than those below them. When she was asked for any number above six, she always gave some number over six and under ten. She sometimes doubled over a straw to make it present two ends, and was supposed (thus) to hasten the attainment of her task." By no means all the chimpanzees are so patient as Sally. One kept in the Zoological Gardens for some time made an incessant noise by stamping on the back of the box in which it was confined. It struck this with the flat of its foot while hanging to the cross-bar or perch, and made a prodigious din. This seems to bear out the stories of chimpanzees assembling and drumming on logs in the Central African forests.

The Gorilla.

The name of this enormous ape has been known since 450 B.C. Hanno the Carthaginian, when off Sierra Leone, met with wild men and women whom the interpreter called Gorillas. The males escaped and flung stones from the rocks, but several females were captured. These animals could not have been gorillas, but were probably baboons. Andrew Battell, already mentioned, described the gorilla under the name of Pongo. He says it is like a man, but without understanding even to put a log on a fire; it kills Negroes, and drives off the elephant with clubs; it is never taken alive, but its young are killed with poisoned arrows; it covers its dead with boughs. Dr. Savage described it in 1847. Later Du Chaillu visited its haunts, and his well-known book relates how he met and killed several specimens. But Mr. Winwood Reade, who also went in quest of it, declared that Du Chaillu, like himself, never saw a live gorilla. Von Koppenfels, however, saw a family of four feeding, besides shooting others. The late Miss Kingsley met several, one of which was killed by her elephant-men.

The gorilla has a limited range, extending from 2° north to 5° south latitude in West Africa, a moist overgrown region including the mouth of the Gaboon River. How far east it is found is uncertain, but it is known in the Sierra del Cristal. In 1851-52 it was seen in considerable numbers on the coast.

The gorilla is the largest, strongest, and most formidable of the Primates. An adult male is from 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet high, heavily built, with arms and chest of extraordinary power. The arms reach to the middle of the legs. The hands are clumsy, the thumb short, and the fingers joined by a web. The neck scarcely exists. The leg has a slight calf. The toes are stumpy and thick; the great toe moves like a thumb. The head is large and receding, with enormous ridges above the eyes, which give it a diabolical appearance. The canine teeth are developed into huge tusks. The nose has a long bridge, and the nostrils look downwards. The ear is small and man-like.

In colour the gorilla varies from deep black to iron-grey, with a reddish tinge on the head; old animals become grizzled. The outer hair is ringed grey and brown; beneath it is a woolly growth. The female is smaller—not exceeding 4 feet 6 inches—and less hideous, as {5}the canines are much smaller, and the ridges above the eyes are not noticeable, a feature common also to the young.

Timid, superstitious natives and credulous or untrustworthy travellers have left still wrapped in mystery many of the habits of this mighty ape, whose fever-stricken, forest-clad haunts render investigation always difficult, often impossible. Many tales of its ferocity and strength are obviously untrue, but we think that too much has been disbelieved. That a huge arm descends from a tree, draws up and chokes the wayfarer, must be false, for intelligent natives have confessed to knowing no instance of the gorilla attacking man. That it vanquishes the leopard is probable; that it has driven the lion from its haunts requires proof. Nor can we accept tales of the carrying-off of Negro women; and the defeat of the elephants, too, must be considered a fiction.

But we must believe that this ape, if provoked or wounded, is a terrible foe, capable of ripping open a man with one stroke of its paw, or of cracking the skull of a hunter as easily as a squirrel cracks a nut. There is a tale of a tribe that kept an enormous gorilla as executioner, which tore its victims to pieces, until an Englishman, doomed to meet it, noticing a large swelling near its ribs, killed it with a heavy blow or two on the weak spot.

Gorillas live mainly in the trees on whose fruit they subsist; they construct a shelter in the lower boughs for the family, and as a lying-in place for the female. The male is said to sleep below, with his back against the tree—a favourite attitude with both sexes—to keep off leopards. On the ground it moves on all-fours, with a curious swinging action, caused by putting its hands with fingers extended on the ground, and bringing its body forward by a half-jump. Having a heel, it can stand better than other apes; but this attitude is not common, and Du Chaillu appears to have been mistaken when he describes the gorilla as attacking upright.

In captivity only immature specimens have been seen—Barnum's great ape being one of the larger forms of chimpanzee. Accounts vary as to the temper of the gorilla, some describing it as untamable, while others say it is docile and playful when young. There is an American tale that a gorilla over 6 feet high was captured near Tanganyika, but nothing more has reached us about it.

When enraged, a gorilla beats its breast, as the writer was informed by a keeper, who thus confirmed Du Chaillu's account. Its usual voice is a grunt, which, when the animal is excited, becomes a roar.

The Orang-utan.

This great red ape was mentioned by Linnæus in 1766, and at the beginning of the last century a specimen living in the Prince of Orange's collection was described by Vosmaer.

There are three varieties of the Orang, called by the Dyaks {6}Mias-pappan, Mias-rambi, and Mias-kassu, the third of which is smaller, has no cheek-excrescences, and very large teeth. Some naturalists recognise a pale and a dark race.

Most of our information is due to Raja Brooke and Dr. Wallace. The species is confined to Borneo and Sumatra, but fossils have been found in India of this genus, as well as of a chimpanzee. The orang is less man-like than the chimpanzee and gorilla. In height the male varies from 3 feet 10 inches to 4 feet 6 inches, the female being a few inches shorter. It is a heavy creature, with large head—often a foot in breadth—thick neck, powerful arms, which reach nearly to the ankles, and protuberant abdomen. Its legs are short and bowed. The forehead is high, the nose fairly large, the ears very human. The throat is ornamented with large pouches, and there are often callosities on the cheeks. The fingers are webbed, the thumb small, the foot long and narrow, the great toe small and often without a nail. The brain is man-like, and the ribs agree in number with those of man; but there are nine bones in the wrist, whereas man, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee have but eight. The canine teeth are enormous in the male. The hair, a foot or more long on the shoulders and thighs, is yellowish red: there is a slight beard. The skin is grey or brown, and often, in adults, black.

The orang is entirely a tree-living animal, and is only found in moist districts where there is much virgin forest. On the ground it progresses clumsily on all-fours, using its arms as crutches, and with the side only of its feet on the ground. In trees it travels deliberately but with perfect ease, swinging along underneath the branches, although it also walks along them semi-erect. It lives alone with mate and young, and builds a sleeping-place sufficiently low to avoid the wind. Its food is leaves and fruit, especially the durian; its feeding-time, midday.

No animal molests the mias save—so say the Dyaks—the python and crocodile, both of which it kills by tearing with its hands. It never attacks man, but has been known to bite savagely when brought to bay, and it is very tenacious of life, one being found by Mr. Wallace still alive after a fall from a tree, when "both legs had been broken, its hip-joint and the root of the spine shattered, and two bullets flattened in neck and jaws."

In captivity young orangs are playful and docile, but passionate. Less intelligent than chimpanzees, they may be taught to eat and drink nicely, and to obey simple commands. One in the Zoo at present has acquired the rudiments of drill. They will eat meat and eggs, and drink wine, beer, spirits, and tea. An orang described years ago by Dr. Clarke Abel was allowed the run of the ship on the voyage to England, and would play with the sailors in the rigging. When refused food he pretended to commit suicide, and rushed over the side, only to be found under the chains.

The orang is the least interesting of the three great apes; he lacks the power and brutality of the gorilla and the intelligence of the chimpanzee. "The orang," said its keeper to the writer, "is a buffoon; the chimpanzee, a gentleman."

It is worth remark that, although all these apes soon die in our menageries, in Calcutta, where they are kept in the open, orangs thrive well.

The Gibbons.

Next after the great apes in man-like characters come a few long-armed, tailless apes, known as the Gibbons. Like the orang-utan, they live in the great tropical forests of Asia, especially the Indian Archipelago; like the latter, they are gentle, affectionate creatures; and they have also a natural affection for man. But it is in mind and temperament, rather than in skeleton, that the links and differences between men and monkeys must be sought. It will be found that these forest apes differ from other animals and from the true monkeys mainly in this—that they are predisposed to be friendly to man and to obey him, and that they have no bias towards mischief, or "monkey tricks." They are thoughtful, well behaved, and sedate.

The Siamang, one of the largest of the long-armed, tailless gibbons, lives in the Malay Archipelago. The arms of a specimen only 3 feet high measured 5 feet 6 inches across. This, like all the gibbons, makes its way from tree to tree mainly by swinging itself by its arms. But the siamang can walk upright and run. One kept on board ship would walk down the cabin breakfast-table without upsetting the china. The White-handed Gibbon is found in Tenasserim, south-west of Burma. This ape has a musical howl, which the whole flock utters in the early mornings on the tree-tops. In Northern India, in the hills beyond the Brahmaputra, lives another gibbon, the Hulock. One of these kept in captivity soon learnt to eat properly at meals, and to drink out of a cup instead of dipping his fingers in the tea and milk and then sucking them. The Silvery Gibbon kept at the Zoological Gardens was a most amiable pet, and had all the agility of the other gibbons. It is very seldom seen in this country, being a native of Java, where it is said to show the most astonishing activity among the tall cane-groves. One of the first ever brought to England belonged to the great Lord Clive. The Agile Gibbon is another and darker ape of this group.

The list of the man-like apes closes with this group. All the gibbons are highly specialised for tree-climbing and an entirely arboreal life; but it is undeniable that, apart from the modifications necessary for this, such as the abnormal length of the arms, the skeleton closely resembles that of a human being. In their habits, when wild, none of these apes show any remarkable degree of intelligence; but their living is gained in so simple a way, by plucking fruits and leaves, that there is nothing in their surroundings to stimulate thought. They do not need even to think of a time of famine or winter, or to lay up a stock of food for such a season, because they live in the forests under the Equator.

MONKEYS.

The Dog-shaped Monkeys.

After the gibbons come a vast number of monkeys of every conceivable size, shape, and variety, which naturalists have arranged in consecutive order with fair success. Until we reach the Baboons, and go on to the South American Monkeys and the Lemurs, it is not easy to give any idea of what these monkeys do or look like merely by referring to their scientific groups. The usual order of natural histories will here be {10}followed, and the descriptions will, so far as possible, present the habits and appearance of the monkeys specially noticed.

This great family of true monkeys contains the Sacred Monkeys, or Langurs, of India, the Guerezas and Guenons of Africa, the Mangabeys, Macaques, and Baboons. Most of them have naked, hard patches of skin on the hindquarters, and the partition between the nostrils is narrow. Some have tails, some none, and they exhibit the most astonishing differences of size and shape. Perhaps the most grotesque and astonishing of them all is the Proboscis Monkey. It is allied to the langurs, and is a native of the island of Borneo, to which it is confined; its home is the west bank of the Sarawak River. It is an arboreal creature, living in small companies. Mr. Hose, who saw them in their native haunts, says that the proboscis monkeys kept in the trees overhanging the river, and were most difficult to shoot. "I saw altogether about 150 of these monkeys, and without a single exception all were in trees over the water, either lake, river, or in submerged forest. As long as they are in sight, they are very conspicuous objects, choosing the most commanding positions on open tree-tops. Once I saw thirteen in one tree, sitting lazily on the branches, as is their habit, sunning themselves, and enjoying the scenery." They are very striking animals in colour, as well as in form. The face is cinnamon-brown, the sides marked with reddish brown and white, the belly white, the back red-brown and dark brown. Next to the orang-utan, these are the most striking monkeys in the Malay Archipelago.

The greater number of the species intermediate between the gibbons and the New World species are called "Dog-shaped" Monkeys. We wonder why? Only the baboon and a few others are in the least like dogs. The various Sacred Monkeys of India are often seen in this country, and are quite representative of the "miscellaneous" monkeys in general. Most of them have cheek-pouches, a useful monkey-pocket. They poke food into their pouches, which unfold to be filled, or lie flat when not wanted; and with a pocketful of nuts or rice on either side of their faces, they can scream, eat, bite, or scold quite comfortably, which they could not do with their mouths full. The pouchless monkeys have only their big stomachs to rely on.

The Entellus Monkey is the most sacred of all in India. It is grey above and nutty brown below, long-legged and active, a thief and an impudent robber. In one of the Indian cities they became such a nuisance that the faithful determined to catch and send away some hundreds. This was done, and the holy monkeys were deported in covered carts, and released many miles off. But the monkeys were too clever. Having thoroughly enjoyed their ride, they all refused to part with the carts, and, hopping and grimacing, came leaping all the way back {11}beside them to the city, grateful for their outing. One city obtained leave to kill the monkeys; but the next city then sued them for "killing their deceased ancestors." In these monkey-infested cities, if one man wishes to spite another, he throws a few handfuls of rice on to the roof of his house about the rainy season. The monkeys come, find the rice, and quietly lift off many of the tiles and throw them away, seeking more rice in the interstices.

This is not the monkey commonly seen in the hills and at Simla. The large long-tailed monkey there is the Himalayan Langur, one of the common animals of the hills. "The langur," says Mr. Lockwood Kipling in his "Beast and Man in India," "is, in his way, a king of the jungle, nor is he often met with in captivity. In some parts of India troops of langurs come bounding with a mighty air of interest and curiosity to look at passing trains, their long tails lifted like notes of interrogation; but frequently, when fairly perched on a wall or tree alongside, they seem to forget all about it, and avert their heads with an affectation of languid indifference."

In India no distinction is made between monkeys. It is an abominable act of sacrilege to kill one of any kind. In the streets holy bulls, calves, parrakeets, sparrows, and monkeys all rob the shops. One monkey-ridden municipality sent off its inconvenient but holy guests by rail, advising the stationmaster to let them loose at the place to which they were consigned. {12}The station, Saharanpur, was a kind of Indian Crewe, and the monkeys got into the engine-sheds and workshops among the driving-wheels and bands. One got in the double roof of an inspection-car, and thence stole mutton, corkscrews, camp-glasses, and dusters. Among many other interesting and correct monkey stories of Mr. Kipling's is the following: "The chief confectioner of Simla had prepared a most splendid bride-cake, which was safely put by in a locked room, that, like most back rooms in Simla, looked out on the mountain-side. It is little use locking the door when the window is left open. When they came to fetch the bride-cake, the last piece of it was being handed out of the window by a chain of monkeys, who whitened the hill-side with its fragments."

From India to Ceylon is no great way, yet in the latter island different monkeys are found. The two best known are the White-bearded Wanderoo Monkey and the Great Wanderoo. Both are grave, well-behaved monkeys. The former has white whiskers and a white beard, and looks so wise he is called in Latin Nestor, after the ancient counsellor of the Greeks. Nice, clean little monkeys are these, and pretty pets. The great wanderoo is rarer. It lives in the hills. "A flock of them," says Mr. Dallas, "will take possession of a palm-grove, and so well can they conceal themselves in the leaves that the whole party become invisible. The presence of a dog excites their irresistible curiosity, and in order to watch his movements they never fail to betray themselves. They may be seen congregated on the roof of a native hut. Some years ago the child of a European clergyman, having been left on the ground by a nurse, was bitten and teased to death by them. These monkeys have only one wife." Near relatives of the langurs are the two species of Snub-nosed Monkeys, one of which (see figure on page 18) inhabits Eastern Tibet and North-western China, and the other the valley of the Mekong.

The Guerezas and Guenons.

Among the ordinary monkeys of the Old World are some with very striking hair and colours. The Guereza of Abyssinia has bright white-and-black fur, with long white fringes on the sides. This is the black-and-white skin fastened by the Abyssinians to their shields, and, if we are not wrong, by the Kaffirs also. Among the Guenons, a large tribe of monkeys living in the African forests, many of which find their way here as "organ monkeys," is the Diana, a most beautiful creature, living on the Guinea Coast. It has a white crescent on its forehead, bluish-grey fur, a white beard, and a patch of brilliant chestnut on the back, the belly white and orange. A lady, Mrs. Bowditch, gives the following account of a Diana monkey on board ship. It jumped on to her shoulder, stared into her face, and then made friends, seated itself on her knees, and carefully examined her hands. "He then tried to pull off my rings, when I gave him some biscuits, and making a bed for him with my handkerchief he then settled himself comfortably to sleep; and from that moment we were sworn allies. When mischievous, he was often banished to a hen-coop. Much more effect was produced by taking him in sight of the panther, who always seemed most willing to devour him. On these occasions I held him by the tail before the cage; but long before I reached it, knowing where he was going, he pretended to be dead. His eyes were closed quite fast, and every limb was as stiff as though there were no life in him. When taken away, he would open one eye a little, to see whereabouts he might be; but if he caught sight of the panther's cage it was instantly closed, and he became as stiff as before." This monkey stole the men's knives, tools, and handkerchiefs, and even their caps, which he threw into the sea. He would carefully feed the parrots, chewing up biscuit and presenting them the bits; and he caught another small monkey and painted it black! Altogether, he must have enlivened the voyage. The Grivet Monkey, the Green Monkey, the Mona Monkey, and the Mangabey are other commonly seen African species.

The Macaques.

The Macaques, of which there are many kinds, from the Rock of Gibraltar to far Japan, occupy the catalogue between the guenon and the baboon. The Common Macaque and many others have tails. Those of Japan, and some of those of China, notably the Tcheli Monkey, kept outside the monkey-house at the Zoo, and the Japanese Macaque, at the other entrance, are tailless, and much more like anthropoid apes. The Tcheli monkey is large and powerful, but other macaques are of all sizes down to little creatures no bigger than a kitten. Some live in the hottest plains, others in the mountains. The Common Macaque, found in the Malay Archipelago, is a strong, medium-sized monkey. The Formosan Macaque is a rock-living creature; those of Japan inhabit the pine-groves, and are fond of pelting any one who passes with stones and fir-cones. The Bonnet Macaque is an amusing little beast, very fond of hugging and nursing others in captivity. The Bandar or Rhesus Monkey, a common species, also belongs to this group. But the most interesting to Europeans is the Magot, or Barbary Ape. It is the last monkey left in Europe. There it only lives on the Rock of Gibraltar. It was the monkey which Galen is said to have dissected, because he was not permitted to dissect a human body. These monkeys are carefully preserved upon the Rock. Formerly, when they were more common, they were very mischievous. The following story was {15}told by Mr. Bidcup: "The apes of the Rock, led by one particular monkey, were always stealing from the kit of a certain regiment encamped there. At last the soldiers caught the leader, shaved his head and face, and turned him loose. His friends, who had been watching, received him with a shower of sticks and stones. In these desperate circumstances the ape sneaked back to his old enemies, the soldiers, with whom he remained." Lord Heathfield, a former Governor of the Rock, would never let them be hurt; and on one occasion, when the Spaniards were attempting a surprise, the noise made by the apes gave notice of their attempt.

The Baboons.

Far the most interesting of the apes in the wild state are the Baboons. Their dog-like heads (which in some are so large and hideous that they look like a cross between an ill-tempered dog and a pig), short bodies, enormously strong arms, and loud barking cry distinguish them from all other creatures. The greater number—for there are many kinds—live in the hot, dry, stony parts of Africa. They are familiar figures from the cliffs of Abyssinia to the Cape, where their bold and predatory bands still occupy Table Mountain. They are almost the only animals which the high-contracting Powers of Africa have resolved not to protect at any season, so mischievous are they to crops, and recently to the flocks. They kill the suckling lambs, and tear them to pieces for the sake of the milk contained in their bodies.

One of the best-known baboons is the Chacma of South Africa. The old males grow to a great size, and are most formidable creatures. Naturally, they are very seldom caught; but one very large one is in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, at the time of writing. The keeper declares he would rather go into a lion's cage than into the den of this beast when angry. Its head is nearly one-third of its total length from nose to the root of the tail. Its jaw-power is immense, and its forearm looks as strong as Sandow's. {16}Like all monkeys, this creature has the power of springing instantaneously from a sitting position; and its bite would cripple anything from a man to a leopard. The chacmas live in companies in the kopjes, whence they descend to forage the mealie-grounds, river-beds, and bush. Thence they come down to steal fruit and pumpkins or corn, turn over the stones and catch beetles, or eat locusts. Their robbing expeditions are organised. Scouts keep a look-out, the females and young are put in the centre, and the retreat is protected by the old males. Children in the Cape Colony are always warned not to go out when the baboons are near. When irritated—and they are very touchy in their tempers—the whole of the males will sometimes charge and attack. The possibility of this is very unpleasant, and renders people cautious.

Not many years ago a well-known sportsman was shooting in Somaliland. On the other side of a rocky ravine was a troop of baboons of a species of which no examples were in the British Museum. Though he knew the danger, he was tempted to shoot and to secure a skin. At 200 yards he killed one dead, which the rest did not notice. Then he hit another and wounded it. The baboon screamed, and instantly the others sat up, saw the malefactor, and charged straight for him. Most fortunately, they had to scramble down the ravine and up again, by which time the sportsman and his servant had put such a distance between them, making "very good time over the flat," that the baboons contented themselves by barking defiance at them when they reached the level ground.

They are the only mammals which thoroughly understand combination for defence as well as attack. But Brehm, the German traveller, gives a charming story of genuine courage and self-sacrifice shown by one. His hunting dogs gave chase to a troop which was retreating to some cliffs, and cut off a very young one, which ran up on to a rock, only just out of reach of the dogs. An old male baboon saw this, and came alone to the rescue. Slowly and deliberately he descended, crossed the open space, and stamping his hands on the ground, showing his teeth, and backed by the furious barks of the rest of the baboons, he disconcerted and cowed these savage dogs, climbed on to the rock, picked up the baby, and carried him back safely. If the dogs had attacked the old patriarch, his tribe would probably have helped him. Burchell, the naturalist after whom Burchell's zebra is named, let his dogs chase a troop. The baboons turned on them, killed one on the spot by biting through the great blood-vessels of the neck, and laid bare the ribs of another. The Cape {17}Dutch in the Old Colony would rather let their dogs bait a lion than a troop of baboons. The rescue of the infant chacma which Brehm saw himself is a remarkable, and indeed the most incontestable, instance of the exhibition of courage and self-sacrifice by a male animal.

If the baboons were not generally liable to become bad-tempered when they grow old, they could probably be trained to be among the most useful of animal helpers and servers; but they are so formidable, and so uncertain in temper, that they are almost too dangerous for attempts at semi-domestication. When experiments have been made, they have had remarkable results. Le Vaillant, one of the early explorers in South Africa, had a chacma baboon which was a better watch than any of his dogs. It gave warning of any creature approaching the camp at night long before the dogs could hear or smell it. He took it out with him when he was shooting, and used to let it collect edible roots for him. The latest example of a trained baboon only died a few years ago. It belonged to a railway signalman at Uitenhage station, about 200 miles up-country from Port Elizabeth, in Cape Colony. The man had the misfortune to undergo an operation in which both his feet were amputated, after being crushed by the wheels of a train. Being an ingenious fellow, he taught his baboon, which was a full-grown one, to pull him along the line on a trolly to the "distant" signal. There the baboon stopped at the word of command, and the man would work the lever himself. But in time he taught the baboon to do it, while he sat on the trolly, ready to help if any mistake were made.

The chacmas have for relations a number of other baboons in the rocky parts of the African Continent, most of which have almost the same habits, and are not very different in appearance. Among them is the Gelada Baboon, a species very common in the rocky highlands of Abyssinia; another is the Anubis Baboon of the West Coast of Africa. The latter is numerous round the Portuguese settlement of Angola. Whether the so-called {18}Common Baboon of the menageries is a separate species or only the young of some one of the above-mentioned is not very clear. But about another variety there can be no doubt. It has been separated from the rest since the days of the Pharaohs. It does not differ in habits from the other baboons, but inhabits the rocky parts of the Nile Valley. It appears in Egyptian mythology under the name of Thoth, and is constantly seen in the sculptures and hieroglyphs.

Equally strong and far more repulsive are the two baboons of West Africa—the Drill and the Mandrill. As young specimens of these beasts are the only ones at all easily caught, and these nearly always die when cutting their second teeth when in captivity, large adult mandrills are seldom seen in Europe. They grow to a great size, and are probably the most hideous of all beasts. The frightful nose, high cheekbones, and pig-like eyes are the basis of the horrible heads of devils and goblins which Albert Dürer and other German or Dutch mediæval painters sometimes put on canvas. Add to the figure the misplaced bright colours—cobalt-blue on the cheeks, which are scarred, as if by a rake, with scarlet furrows, and scarlet on the buttocks—and it will be admitted that nature has invested this massive, powerful, and ferocious baboon with a repulsiveness equalling in completeness the extremes of grace and beauty manifested in the roe-deer or the bird of paradise.

The natives of Guinea and other parts of West Africa have consistent accounts that the mandrills have tried to carry off females and children. They live in troops like the chacmas, plunder the fields, and, like all baboons, spend much time on the ground walking on all-fours. When doing this, they are quite unlike any other creatures. They walk slowly, with the head bent downwards, like a person walking on hands and knees looking for a pin. With the right hand (usually) they turn over every stick and stone, looking for insects, scorpions, or snails, and these they seize and eat. The writer has seen {19}baboons picking up sand, and straining it through their fingers, to see if there were ants in it. He has also seen one hold up sand in the palm of its hand, and blow the dust away with its breath, and then look again to see if anything edible were left. Mandrills kept in captivity until adult become very savage. One in Wombwell's menagerie killed another monkey and a beagle. Mr. Cross owned one which would sit in an armchair, smoke, and drink porter; but these convivial accomplishments were accompanied by a most ferocious temper.

One of the earliest accounts of the habits of the Abyssinian baboons was given by Ludolf in his "History of Ethiopia." It was translated into quaint, but excellent old English: "Of Apes," he says, "there are infinite flocks up and down in the mountains, a thousand and more together, and they leave no stone unturned. If they meet with one that two or three cannot lift they call for more aid, and all for the sake of the Worms that lye under, a sort of dyet which they relish exceedingly. They are very greedy after Emmets. So that having found an emmet hill, they presently surround it, and laying their fore paws with the hollow downward upon the ant heap, as soon as the Emmets creep into their treacherous palms they lick 'em off, with great comfort to their stomachs. And there they will lye till there is not an Emmet left. They are also pernicious to fruits and apples, and will destroy whole fields and gardens unless they be looked after. For they are very cunning, and will never venture in till the return of their spies, which they send always before, who, giving all information that it is safe, in they rush with their whole body and make a quick despatch. Therefore they go very quiet and silent to their prey; and if their young ones chance to make a noise, they chastise them with their fists; but if the coast is clear, then every one has a different noise to express his joy." Ludolf clearly means the baboons by this description.

A more ancient story deals with Alexander's campaigns. He encamped on a mountain on which were numerous bands of monkeys (probably baboons). On the following morning the sentries saw what looked like troops coming to offer them battle. As they had just won a {20}victory, they were at a loss to guess who these new foes might he. The alarm was given, and the Macedonian troops set out in battle-array. Then through the morning mists they saw that the enemy was an immense troop of monkeys. Their prisoners, who knew what the alarm was caused by, made no small sport of the Macedonians.

The Speech of Monkeys.

Something should be said of the alleged "speech of monkeys" which Professor Garner believed himself to have discovered. He rightly excluded mere sounds showing joy, desire, or sorrow from the faculty of speech, but claimed to have detected special words, one meaning "food," another "drink," another "give me that," another meaning "monkey," or an identification of a second animal or monkey. He used a phonograph to keep permanent record of the sounds, and made an expedition to the West African forests in the hope that he might induce the large anthropoid apes to answer the sounds which are so often uttered by their kind in our menageries. The enterprise ended, as might have been expected, in failure. Nor was it in the least necessary to go and sit in a cage in an African forest in the hope of striking up an acquaintance with the native chimpanzees. The little Capuchin monkeys, whose voices and sounds he had ample opportunity of observing here, give sufficient material for trying experiments in the meaning of monkey sounds. The writer believes that it is highly probable that the cleverer monkeys have a great many notes or sounds which the others do understand, if only because they make the same under similar circumstances, otherwise they would not utter them. They are like the sounds which an intelligent but nearly dumb person might make. Also they have very sharp ears, and some of them can understand musical sounds, so far as to show a very marked attention to them. The following account of an experiment of this kind, when a violin was being played, is related in "Life at the Zoo": "The Capuchin monkeys, the species selected by Professor Garner for his experiments in monkey language, showed the strangest and most amusing excitement. These pretty little creatures have very expressive and intelligent faces, and the play and mobility of their faces and voices while listening to the music were extraordinarily rapid. The three in the first cage at once rushed up into their box, and then all peeped out, chattering and excited. One by one they came down, and listened to the music with intense curiosity, shrieking and making faces at a crescendo, shaking the wires angrily at a discord, and putting their heads almost upside-down in efforts at acute criticism at low and musical passages. Every change of note was marked by some alteration of expression in the faces of the excited little monkeys, and a series of discordant notes roused them to a passion of rage." At the same time a big baboon, chained up near, evidently disliked it. He walked off in the opposite direction to the farthest limits of his chain.

The New World Monkeys.

Mention of the Capuchins takes us to the whole group of the New World Monkeys. Nearly all of these live in the tropical forests of Brazil, Guiana, Venezuela, and Mexico. They are all different from the Old World monkeys, and many are far more beautiful. The most attractive of the hardier kinds are the Capuchins; but there are many kinds of rare and delicate little monkeys more beautiful than any squirrel, which would make the most delightful pets in the world, if they were not so delicate. To try to describe the Old World monkeys in separate groups from end to end is rather a hopeless task. But the American monkeys are more manageable by the puzzled amateur. Most of them have a broad and marked division between the nostrils, which are not mere slits close together, but like the nostrils of men. They also have human-looking rounded heads. Their noses are of the "cogitative" order, instead of being snouts or snubs with narrow openings in them; and the whole face is in many ways human and intelligent. The Howler Monkeys, which utter the most hideous sounds ever heard in the forests, and the Spider Monkeys are the largest. The latter have the most wonderfully developed limbs and tails for catching and climbing of any living animals. As highly specialised creatures are always interesting, visitors to any zoological garden will find it worth while to watch a spider monkey climbing, {23}just as it is always worth while to watch a great snake on the move. The tail is used as a fifth hand: the Indians of Brazil say they catch fish with it, which is not true. But if you watch a spider monkey moving from tree to tree, his limbs and tail move like the five fingers of a star-fish. Each of the extremities is as sensitive as a hand, far longer in proportion than an ordinary man's arm, and apparently able to work independently of joints. The monkey can do so many things at once that no juggler can equal it. It will hold fruit in one hand, pick more with one foot, place food to the mouth with another hand, and walk and swing from branch to branch with the other foot and tail, all simultaneously. These monkeys have no visible thumb, though dissection shows that they have a rudimentary one; but the limbs are so flexible that they can put one arm round behind their heads over on to the opposite shoulder, and brush the fur on their upper arm. The end of the tail seems always "feeling" the air or surroundings, and has hairs, thin and long, at the end, which aid it in knowing when it is near a leaf or branch. It is almost like the tentacle of some sea zoophyte. Gentle creatures, all of them, are these spider monkeys. One of them, of the species called Waita, when kept in captivity, wore the fur off its forehead by rubbing its long gaunt arms continually over its brow whenever it was scolded. The spider monkeys differ only in the degree of spidery slenderness in their limbs. In disposition they are always amiable, and in habits tree-climbers and fruit-eaters.

The Capuchins are, in the writer's opinion, the nicest of all monkeys. Many species are known, but all have the same round merry faces, bright eyes, pretty fur, and long tails. There is always a fair number at the Zoological Gardens. They are merry, but full of fads. One hates children and loves ladies; another adores one or two other monkeys, and screams at the rest. All are fond of insects as well as of fruit. A friend of the writer kept one in a large house in Leicestershire. It was not very good-tempered, but most amusing, climbing up the blind-cord first, and catching and eating the flies on the window-panes most dexterously, always avoiding the wasps. This monkey was taught to put out a lighted paper (a useful accomplishment) by dashing its hands on to the burning part, or, if the paper were twisted up, by taking the unlighted end and beating the burning part on the ground; and it was very fond of turning the leaves of any large book. This it did not only by vigorous use of both arms and hands, but by putting its head under too, and "heaving" the leaves over.

In the private room behind the monkey-house at the Zoo there are always a number of the rare and delicate monkeys from the New World, which cannot stand the draughts of the outer {24}house, like the Capuchins and spider monkeys. The greater number of these come from tropical America. There, in the mighty forests, so lofty that no man can climb the trees, so dense that there is a kind of upper storey on the interlaced tree-tops, where nearly all the birds and many mammals live without descending to earth, forests in which there is neither summer nor winter, but only the changes from hour to hour of the equatorial day, the exquisite Marmosets, whose fur looks like the plumage and whose twittering voices imitate the notes of birds, live and have their being. They are all much alike in shape, except that the Lion Marmoset's mane is like that of a little lion clad in floss silk; and they all have sharp little claws, and feed on insects. The Pinché Marmoset from the Guiana forests has a face like a black Indian chief, with white plumes over his head and neck like those worn by a "brave" in full war-paint. Merchants who do business with Brazil very frequently import marmosets and the closely allied tamarins as presents for friends in England; the Brazilians themselves like to have them as pets also; so there is to some extent a trade demand for them.

Among the most delicate of American monkeys are the Oukaris, which have somewhat human faces, exquisite soft fur, and are as gentle as most of these forest creatures. They seldom live long in captivity, a few months being as much as they will generally endure, even in Brazil. Perhaps the rarest of all is the white-haired Scarlet-faced Oukari. This monkey has long white hair from neck to tail, sandy whiskers, and a bright scarlet face. It lives in a district of partly flooded forest, and is only obtained by the Indians using blow-pipes and arrows dipped in very diluted urari poison. The White-headed Saki is a rare and very pretty little monkey of Brazil; and there are a very large number of other species of this group whose names it would be mere weariness to mention. All these small monkeys are very quick and intelligent, while the rapidity of their movements, their ever-changing expression, and sharp, eager cries heighten the idea of cleverness given by their general appearance. Other little imps of these forests are the Squirrel Monkeys. In the common species the face is like a little furry man's, its arms brilliant yellow (as if dipped in gamboge dye), the cheeks pink, and eyes black. In habits it is a quick-tempered, imperious little creature, carnivorous, and a great devourer of butterflies and beetles.

The most beautiful and entertaining of all monkeys are these New World species. No person clever at interpreting the ways of animals would fail to consider them far more clever and sympathetic than the melancholy anthropoid apes, while for appearance they have no equals. Probably the most attractive monkey in Europe is a South American one now in the London Zoological Gardens. It was first mentioned to Europeans by Baron von Humboldt, who saw it in the cabin of an Indian on the Orinoco. These forest Indians of South America are gentle creatures themselves. Among other amiable qualities, they have a passion for keeping pets. One who worked for a friend of the writer, with others of his tribe, was asked what he would take in payment, which was given in kind. The others chose cloth, axes, etc. This Indian said that he did not care for any of these things. He said he wanted a "poosa." No one knew what he meant. He signed that he wished to go to the house and would show them. Arrived there, he pointed to the cat! "Pussy," to the Arawak Indian, was a "poosa," and that was what he wanted as a month's wages. Humboldt's Indian had something better than a "poosa." It was a monkey, as black as coal, with a round head, long thickly furred tail, and bright vivacious eyes. The explorer called it the Lagothrix, which means Hare-skin Monkey. The fur is not the least like a hare's, but much resembles that of an opossum. The more suitable name is the Woolly Monkey. The one kept at the Gardens is a most friendly and vivacious creature, ready to embrace, play and make friends with any well-dressed person. It dislikes people in working-clothes which are dirty or soiled—a not uncommon aversion of clever animals.

In spite of all the varieties of temperament in the monkey tribe, from the genial little Capuchins to the morose old baboon, they nearly all have one thing in common—that is, the monkey brain. The same curious restlessness, levity, and want of concentration mark them all, except the large anthropoid apes. Some of these have without doubt power of reflection and concentration which the other monkeys do not possess. But in all the rest, though the capacity for understanding exists, the wish to please, as a dog does, and the desire to remember {27}and to retain what it has learnt, seem almost entirely wanting. Egoism, which is a sign of human dementia, is a very leading characteristic of all monkeys. There is no doubt that the baboons might be trained to be useful animals if they always served one master. Le Vaillant and many other travellers have noted this. But they are too clever, and at the bottom too ill-tempered ever to be trustworthy, even regarded as "watches," or to help in minor manual labour. Baboons would make an excellent substitute for dogs as used in Belgium for light draught; but no one could ever rely on their behaving themselves when their master's eye was elsewhere.

Taken as a family, the monkeys are a feeble and by no means likeable race. They are "undeveloped" as a class, full of promise, but with no performance.

THE LEMURS.

The South American monkeys, with their squirrel-like forms and fur, are followed by a beautiful and interesting group of creatures, called the Lemurs, with their cousins the Lorises, Maholis, and Pottos. Their resemblance to monkeys is mainly in their hands and feet. These are real and very highly developed hands, with proper thumbs. The second toe on the hind foot nearly always terminates in a long, sharp claw. "Elia," the Indian naturalist, who kept them as pets, noticed that they used this to scratch themselves with. Some of them have the finger-tips expanded into a sensitive disk, full of extra nerves. Lemur means "ghost." Unlike the lively squirrels and monkeys, they do not leave their hiding-places till the tropical darkness has fallen on the forest, when they seek their food, not by descending to the ground, but by ascending to the upper surface of the ocean of trees, and again, at the first approach of dawn, seek refuge from the light in the recesses of some dark and hollow trunk. The Ring-tailed Lemur is as lively by day as night; but most of the race are so entirely creatures of darkness that the light seems to stupefy them. When wakened, they turn over like sleeping children, with the same inarticulate cries and deep, uneasy sighs. But at night most are astonishingly active; they fly from tree to tree, heard, but invisible; so that the natives of Madagascar doubt whether they are not true lemures, the unquiet ghosts of their departed dead.

Though the lemurs are here treated apart from the other animals of Madagascar, it will be obvious that they are a curious and abnormal tribe. This is true of most of the animals of that great island, which has a fauna differing both from that of the adjacent coast of Africa and from that of India or Australia. In the Fossa, a large representative of the Civets, it possesses a species absolutely unlike any other. The Aye-aye is also an abnormal creature. Nor must it be forgotten that Madagascar was until recently the home of some of the gigantic ground-living birds. But, after all, none of its inhabitants are more remarkable than its hosts of lemurs, some of which are to be met with in almost every coppice in the island. There are also many extinct kinds.

Exquisite fur, soft and beautifully tinted, eyes of extraordinary size and colour (for the pupil shuts up to a mere black line by day, and the rest of the eye shows like a polished stone of rich brown or yellow or marble-grey), are the marks of most of the lemurs. But there are other lemur-like creatures, or "lemuroids," which, though endowed with the {28}same lovely fur, like softest moss, have no tails. The strangest of all are two creatures called the Slender Loris and the Slow Loris. The slender loris, which has the ordinary furry coat of the lemurs, and no tail, moves on the branches exactly as does a chameleon. Each hand or foot is slowly raised, brought forward, and set down again. The fingers then as slowly close on the branch till its grasp is secure. It is like a slow-working mechanical toy. Probably this is a habit, now instinctive, gained by ages of cautiously approaching insects. But the result is to give the impression that the creature is almost an automaton.

Madagascar is the main home of the lemurs, though some of the related animals are also found in Africa and in the East Indies. But the dense forests of the great island are full of these curious nocturnal beasts, of which there are so many varieties presenting very slight differences of form and habit, that naturalists have some difficulty in giving even a complete list of their species. Add to this that nearly all of them are intensely and entirely nocturnal, and the scarcity of data as to their habits is easily accounted for. When seen by us, their faces all lack expression—that is to say, the eyes, which mainly give expression, seem entirely vacant and meaningless. But this is due to their special adaptation to seeing in the dark tropical night. By day the pupil of the eye almost disappears. If only we could also see in the dark, the eyes of the lemur might have as much expression as those of a faithful dog. The change which night makes in their general demeanour is simply miraculous. By day many of them are like hibernating animals, almost incapable of movement. When once the curtain of night has fallen, they are as active as squirrels, and as full of play as a family of kittens. The Ring-tailed Lemur is often kept as a pet, both in Madagascar and in the Mauritius. It is one of the very few which are diurnal in their habits. When in a hurry it jumps along, standing on its hind feet, like a little kangaroo, but holding its tail upright behind its back. It will follow people upstairs in this way, jumping from step to step, with its front paws outstretched, as if it were addressing an audience. The French call these day lemurs Makis. The ring-tailed lemur lives largely among rocks and precipices. Most of these creatures live upon fruit, the shoots and leaves of trees, and other vegetable food. But, like the squirrel, they have no objection to eggs and nestlings, and also kill and eat any small birds and insects. Some of the smaller kinds are almost entirely insect-feeders. The largest kind of lemur belongs to the group known as the Indris. The Black-and-white Indri measures about 2 feet in length. It has only a rudimentary tail, large ears, and a sharp-pointed nose. The amount of white colouring varies much in different individuals. This variation in colouring—a very rare feature among wild mammalia, though one of the first changes shown when animals are domesticated—is also found in the next three species, called Sifakas. The Diademed Sifaka, {29}the Woolly Indri, and the Black Indri all belong to this group. The Sifakas, as some of these and the allied forms are called, are venerated by the Malagasys, who never kill one intentionally. Mr. Foster observes that "they live in companies of six or eight, and are very gentle and inoffensive animals, wearing a very melancholy expression, and being as a rule morose, inactive, and more silent than the other lemurs. They rarely live long in captivity. In their native state they are most alert in the morning and evening, as during the day they conceal themselves under the foliage of trees. When asleep or in repose, the head is dropped on the chest and buried between the arms, the tail rolled up on itself and disposed between the hind legs. The sifakas live exclusively on vegetable substances, fruits, leaves, and flowers, their diet not being varied, as in the other lemurs, by small birds, eggs, or insects. Their life is almost entirely arboreal, for which the muscles of their hands and feet, as well as the parachute-like folds between their arms and bodies, and their peculiar hooked fingers, are well fitted. The young one is carried by the mother on its back, its hands grasping her armpits tightly."

This is not the universal way of carrying the young among lemurs. The Crowned Lemur, a beautiful grey-and-white species, often breeds at the Zoo. The female carries its young one partly on its side. The infant clings tightly with arms and tail round the very slender waist of the lemur, and pushes out its sharp little face just above the thigh of the mother. The Woolly Indri has more woolly fur than the others of its tribe, a shorter nose, and a longer tail.

The True Lemurs

Of these there are several species, all confined to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. One of the best known is the Ring-tailed Lemur, mentioned above. It is called Lemur Catta, the Cat Lemur, from being so often kept in domestication. The Weasel {30}Lemur, the Grey Lemur, the Mouse Lemur, the Gentle Lemur, the Sportive Lemur, the Crowned Lemur, and Coquerel's Lemur, all represent various small, pretty, and interesting varieties of the group. The Black-and-white Lemur, one of the larger kinds, is capable of domestication. A specimen kept in a London house, where the present writer saw it, was always called "Pussy" by the children. The other small kinds are very like squirrels, mice, weasels, and other creatures, with which they have no connection. It seems as though the curiously limited and primitive fauna of Madagascar tried to make up for its want of variety by mimicking the forms of other animals, and something of the same kind is seen in Australia, where the marsupials take the place of all kinds of ordinary mammals. There are marsupial rats, marsupial wolves, marsupial squirrels, and even marsupial moles. The small squirrel and rat-like lemurs are called Chirogales. Coquerel's Lemur is really a chirogale. It is a quaint and by no means amiable little animal, sleeping obstinately all day, and always ready to growl and bite if disturbed. Its colour is brownish grey and cream-colour. A pair of these, rolled up tightly into balls in a box of hay, will absolutely refuse to move, even when handled. They only feed by night.

The Galagos.

An allied group, confined to tropical Africa, is that of the Galagos. They are most beautiful little creatures, whose nearest relatives are the Malagasy lemurs. Generally speaking, they have even more exquisite fur than the lemurs. It is almost as soft as floss silk, and so close that the hand sinks into it as into a bed of moss. The colour of the fur is rich and pleasing, generally some shade of brown. The head is small, the nose pointed, and the ears thin, hairless, and capable of being folded up, like the wings of a beetle. But the most beautiful feature of the galagos is their eyes. These are of immense size, compared with the head. The eye is of the richest and most beautiful brown, like a cairngorm stone, but not glassy or clear. Though quite translucent, the eye is marked with minute dividing-lines, like the grain in an agate—a truly exquisite object. When handled or taken in the arms, the little galago clasps the fingers or sleeve tightly, as if it thought it was holding a tree, and shows no disposition to escape. A family of three or four young ones, no larger than mice, with their large-eyed mother attending to them, forms an exquisitely dainty little group. The galagos vary from the size of a squirrel to that of a small cat. The kind most often seen in England is the Maholi Galago from East Africa. Another species comes from Senegal, and others from Calabar and the forests of the Gold Coast. Garnett's Galago, another species, is shown above. They may be regarded as nocturnal tropical lemuroids, analogous to the chirogales of Madagascar. It has been suggested, with great probability, that the intensely drowsy sleep {31}of many of the lemuroid animals corresponds to the hibernation of many northern mammals. Tropical animals often become torpid to avoid the famine caused by the hot season, just as creatures in cold countries hibernate to avoid the hunger which would otherwise come with winter.

The Slow Lemurs or Lorises, and Tarsiers.

Another group of lemuroids is distinguished from the foregoing by having the second finger of the fore paws either very short or rudimentary. The thumb and great toe are also set very widely apart from the other fingers and toes. A far more striking distinction to the non-scientific eye is their astonishingly deliberate and slow movements. They have no tails, enormous eyes, and very long, slender legs.

The Slow Loris is found in Eastern India and the Malay countries, where it is fairly common in the forests. The Bengali natives call it sharmindi billi ("bashful cat"), from its slow, solemn, hesitating movements when in pursuit of insects. Of a slow loris kept by him, Sir William Jones, in the "Asiatic Researches," wrote: "At all times he seemed pleased at being stroked on the head and throat, and he frequently allowed me to touch his extremely sharp teeth. But his temper was always quick, and when he was unseasonably disturbed he expressed a little resentment, by an obscure murmur, like that of a squirrel.... When a grasshopper or any insect alighted within his reach, his eyes, as he fixed them on his prey, glowed with uncommon fire; and having drawn himself back to spring on his prey with greater force, he seized it with both his fore paws, and held it till he had devoured it. He never could have enough grasshoppers, and spent the whole night in prowling for them."

The Slender Loris, an equally curious creature, is only found in Southern India and Ceylon. Its food consists entirely of insects, which it captures by gradual, almost paralysed approach. It has been described as a "furry-coated chameleon." A group of slow lemurs, living in Western Africa, are known as Pottos. They are odd little quadrupeds, in which the "forefinger" never grows to be more than a stump. The tail is also either sharp or rudimentary. They are as slow as the lorises in their movements.

In the Malay islands a distant relative, even more curiously formed, is found in the Tarsier. It has the huge eyes, pointed ears, and beautiful fur of the galagos, but the tail is long, thin, and tufted. The fingers are flattened out into disks, like a tree-frog's. These creatures hop from bough to bough in a frog-like manner in search of insects. They are not so large as a good-sized rat. Our photograph does not give an adequate idea of the size of the eyes.

The Aye-aye.

Last, and most remarkable of all these weird lemuroids, is the Aye-aye. It is placed in a group by itself, and has teeth like those of the Rodents, a large bushy tail, and most extraordinarily long, slender fingers, which it probably uses for picking caterpillars and grubs out of rotten wood. It is nearly as large as an Arctic fox, but its habits are those of a lemur. In Madagascar it haunts the bamboo forests, feeding on the juice of sugar-cane, grubs, and insects. The fingers of its hands are of different sizes and lengths, though all are abnormally long and slender. The second finger seems to have "wasted," but is said to be of the utmost value to its owner in extracting grubs and insects from the burrows in which they dwell, or the crannies in which they may have taken refuge. Very seldom is this animal seen alive in captivity. Although commonly called Aye-aye in this country, it is doubtful if this is really its native name. The aye-aye was long a puzzle to naturalists, but is now classed as a lemuroid.

The living races of animals have thus far been reviewed along the completed list of the first great order—the Primates. Even in that circumscribed group how great is the tendency to depart from the main type, and how wonderful the adaptation to meet the various needs of the creatures' environment! The skeletons, the frames on which these various beings are built up, remain the same in character; but the differences of proportion in the limbs, of the muscles with which they are equipped, and of the weight of the bodies to be moved are astonishing. Compare, for instance, the head of the male Gorilla, with its great ridges of bone, to which are attached the muscles which enable it to devour hard tropical fruits and bite off young saplings and bamboos, with the rounded and delicate head of the Insect-eating Monkeys of South Africa; or set side by side the hand of the Chimpanzee with that of the Aye-aye, with its delicate, slender fingers, like those of a skeleton hand. What could be more diverse than the movements of these creatures, whose structure is nevertheless so much alike? Some of the lemuroids are as active as squirrels, flying lightly from branch to branch; in others, as the Slow Lorises, the power of rapid movement has disappeared, and been replaced by a creeping gait which cannot be accelerated. Already, in a single order, we see the rich diversity of nature, and its steady tendency to make all existing things serviceable by adapting other parts of creation to their use or enjoyment.

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.

The characteristics of the Cats and their allies are too well known to need description. We will therefore only mention the chief types of the group, and proceed to give, in the fullest detail which space allows, authentic anecdotes of their life and habits. The tribe includes Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Pumas, Jaguars, a large number of so-called Tiger-cats (spotted and striped), Wild Cats, Domestic Cats, and Lynxes. The Hunting-leopard, or Cheeta, stands in a sub-group by itself, as does the Fossa, the only large carnivore of Madagascar. {34}This closes the list of the most cat-like animals. The next links in the chain are formed by the Civets and Genets, creatures with more or less retractile claws, and long, bushy tails; the still less cat-like Binturong, a creature with a prehensile tail; and the Mongooses and Ichneumons, more and more nearly resembling the weasel tribe.

THE LION.

Recent intrusions for railways, sport, discovery, and war into Central and East Africa have opened up new lion countries, and confirmed, in the most striking manner, the stories of the power, the prowess, and the dreadful destructiveness to man and beast of this king of the Carnivora. At present it is found in Persia, on the same rivers where Nimrod and the Assyrian kings made its pursuit their royal sport; in Gujerat, where it is nearly extinct, though in General Price's work on Indian game written before the middle of the last century it is stated that a cavalry officer killed eighty lions in three years; and in Africa, from Algeria to the Bechuana country. It is especially common in Somaliland, where the modern lion-hunter mainly seeks his sport. On the Uganda Railway, from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, lions are very numerous and dangerous. In Rhodesia and the Northern Transvaal they have killed hunters, railway officials, and even our soldiers near Komati Poort. It has been found that whole tracts of country are still often deserted by their inhabitants from fear of lions, and that the accounts of their ravages contained in the Old Testament, telling how Samaria was almost deserted a second time from this cause, might be paralleled to-day.

The African Lion.

BY F. C. SELOUS.

When, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, Europeans first settled at the Cape of Good Hope, the lion's roar was probably to be heard almost nightly on the slopes of Table Mountain, since a quaint entry in the Diary of Van Riebeck, the first Dutch governor of the Cape, runs thus: "This night the lions roared as if they would take the fort by storm"—the said fort being situated on the site of the city now known as Cape Town.

At that date there can be little doubt that, excepting in the waterless deserts and the dense equatorial forests, lions roamed over the whole of the vast continent of Africa from Cape Agulhas to the very shore of the Mediterranean Sea; nor was their range very seriously curtailed until the spread of European settlements in North and South Africa, and the acquisition of firearms by the aboriginal inhabitants of many parts of the country, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, steadily denuded large areas of all wild game.

As the game vanished, the lions disappeared too; for although at first they preyed to a large extent on the domestic flocks and herds which gradually replaced the wild denizens of the once-uninhabited plains, this practice brought them into conflict with the white colonists or native herdsmen armed with weapons of precision, before whom they rapidly succumbed.

To-day lions are still to be found wherever game exists in any quantity, and their numbers will be in proportion to those of the wild animals on which they prey.

The indefinite increase of lions must be checked by some unknown law of nature, otherwise they would have become so numerous in the sparsely inhabited or altogether uninhabited parts of Africa, that they would first have exterminated all the game on which they had been wont to prey, and would then have had to starve or to have eaten one another. But such a state of things has never been known to occur; and whenever Europeans have entered a previously unexplored and uninhabited tract of country in Africa, and have found it teeming with buffaloes, zebras, and antelopes, they have always found lions in such districts very plentiful indeed, but never in such numbers as to seriously diminish the abundance of the game upon which they depended for food.

It is easy to understand that the increase of a herd of herbivorous animals would be regulated by the amount of the food-supply available, as well as constantly checked by the attacks of the large carnivora, such as lions, leopards, cheetas, hyænas, and wild dogs; but I have never been able to comprehend what has kept within bounds the inordinate increase of lions and other carnivorous animals in countries where for ages past they have had an abundant food-supply, and {37}at the same time, having been almost entirely unmolested by human beings, have had no enemies. Perhaps such a state of things does not exist at the present day, but there are many parts of Africa where such conditions have existed from time immemorial up to within quite recent years.

Since lions were once to be found over the greater portion of the vast continent of Africa, it is self-evident that these animals are able to accommodate themselves to great variations of climate and surroundings; and I myself have met with them, close to the sea, in the hot and sultry coastlands of South-east Africa; on the high plateau of Mashonaland, where at an altitude of 6,000 feet above sea-level the winter nights are cold and frosty; amongst the stony hills to the east of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi; and in the swamps of the Chobi. In the great reed-beds of the latter river a certain number of lions appeared to live constantly, preying on buffaloes and lechwe antelopes. I often heard them roaring at nights in these swamps, and I once saw two big male lions wading slowly across an open space between two beds of reeds in water nearly a foot in depth.

Although there are great individual differences in lions as regards size, general colour of coat, and more particularly in the length, colour, and profuseness of the mane with which the males are adorned, yet as these differences occur in every part of Africa where lions are met with, and since constant varieties with one fixed type of mane living by themselves and not interbreeding with other varieties do not exist anywhere, modern zoologists are, I think, now agreed that there is only one species of lion, since in any large series of wild lion skins, made in any particular district of Africa or Asia, every gradation will be found between the finest-maned specimens and those which are destitute of any mane at all. Several local races have, however, been recently described by German writers.

In the hot and steamy coastlands of tropical Africa lions usually have short manes, and never, I believe, attain the long silky black manes sometimes met with on the high plateaux of the interior. However, there is, I believe, no part of Africa where all or even the majority {38}of male lions carry heavy manes, the long hair of which does not as a rule cover more than the neck and chest, with a tag of varying length and thickness extending from the back of the neck to between the shoulder-blades. Lions with very full black manes, covering the whole shoulders, are rare anywhere, but more likely to be encountered on the high plateaux, where the winter nights are extremely cold, than anywhere else. In such cases, in addition to the tufts of hair always found on the elbows and in the armpits of lions with fair-sized manes, there will probably be large tufts of hair in each flank just where the thighs join the belly; but I have never yet seen the skin of a lion shot within the last thirty years with the whole belly covered with long, thick hair, as may constantly be observed in lions kept in captivity in the menageries of Europe. There is, however, some evidence to show that, when lions existed on the high plains of the Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony, where the winter nights are much colder than in the countries farther north where lions may still be encountered, certain individuals of the species developed a growth of long hair all over the belly, as well as an extraordinary luxuriance of mane on the neck and shoulders.

From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that wild lions, having as a rule much less luxuriant manes than many examples of their kind to be seen in European menageries, are ordinarily not so majestic and dignified in appearance as many of their caged relatives. On the other hand, the wild lion is a much more alert and active animal than a menagerie specimen, and when in good condition is far better built and more powerful-looking, being free from all appearance of lankiness and weakness in the legs, and having strong, well-formed hindquarters. The eyes of the menagerie lion, too, look brown and usually sleepy, whilst those of the wild animal are yellow, and extraordinarily luminous even after death. When wounded and standing at bay, with head held low between his shoulders, growling hoarsely, and with twitching tail, even if he is not near enough to be observed very closely, a lion looks a very savage and dangerous animal; but should he be wounded in such a way as to admit of a near approach—perhaps by a shot that has paralysed his hindquarters—his flaming eyes will seem to throw out sparks of living fire.

Speaking generally, there is little or no danger in meeting a lion or lions in the daytime. Even in parts of the country where firearms are unknown, and where the natives seldom or never interfere with them, these animals seem to have an instinctive fear of man, and even when encountered at the carcase of an animal freshly killed, and at a time when they may be supposed to be hungry, they will almost invariably retreat before the unwelcome presence, sometimes slowly and sulkily, but in districts where much hunting with firearms has been going on at a very rapid pace. However, I have known of two cases of Europeans mounted on horseback having been attacked by lions in broad daylight, and Dr. Livingstone mentions a third. In one of the instances which came within my own knowledge, a lion sprang at a Boer hunter as he was riding slowly along, carrying an elephant-gun in his right hand and followed by a string of natives on foot. The lion attacked from the left side, and with its right paw seized my friend from behind by the right side of his face and neck, inflicting deep gashes with its sharp claws, one of which cut right through his cheek and tore out one of his teeth. My friend was pulled from his horse, but, clutching the loosely girthed saddle tightly with his knees, it twisted round under the horse's belly before he fell to the ground. Instead of following up its success, the lion, probably scared by the shouting of the Kaffirs, trotted away for a short distance, and then turned and stood looking at the dismounted hunter, who, never having lost his presence of mind, immediately shot it dead with his heavy old muzzle-loading elephant-gun. Besides these three instances of Europeans having been attacked in the daytime by lions, I have known of a certain number of natives having been killed in broad daylight. Such incidents are, however, by no means every-day occurrences, and, speaking generally, it may be said that the risk of molestation by lions in Africa during daylight is very small. It is by night that lions roam abroad with stealthy step in search of prey; and at such times they are often, when hungry, incredibly bold and daring. I have known them upon several occasions to enter a hunter's camp, and, regardless of fires, to seize oxen and horses and human beings.

During the year following the first occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, a great deal of damage was done by lions, which could not resist the attractions of the settlers' live stock. For the first few months I kept as accurate an account as I could of the number of horses, {41}donkeys, oxen, sheep, goats, and pigs which were killed by lions, and it soon mounted up to over 200 head. During the same time several white men were also mauled by lions, and one unfortunate man named Teale was dragged from beneath the cart, where he was sleeping by the side of a native driver, and at once killed and eaten. Several of the horses were killed inside rough shelters serving as stables. In the following year (1891) over 100 pigs were killed in one night by a single lioness. These pigs were in a series of pens, separated one from another, but all under one low thatched roof. The lioness forced her way in between two poles, and apparently was unable, after having satisfied her hunger, to find her way out again, and, becoming angry and frightened, wandered backwards and forwards through the pens, killing almost all the pigs, each one with a bite at the back of the head or neck. This lioness, which had only eaten portions of two young pigs, made her escape before daylight, but was killed with a set gun the next night by the owner of the pigs.

When lions grow old, they are always liable to become man-eaters. Finding their strength failing them, and being no longer able to hunt and pull down large antelopes or zebras, they are driven by hunger to killing small animals, such as porcupines, and even tortoises, or they may visit a native village and catch a goat, or kill a child or woman going for water; and finding a human being a very easy animal to catch and kill, an old lion which has once tasted human flesh will in all probability continue to be a man-eater until he is killed. On this subject, in his "Missionary Travels," Dr. Livingstone says: "A man-eater is invariably an old lion; and when he overcomes his fear of man so far as to come to villages for goats, the people remark, 'His teeth are worn; he will soon kill men.' They at once acknowledge the necessity of instant action, and turn out to kill him." It is the promptness with which measures are taken by the greater part of the natives of Southern Africa to put an end to {42}any lion which may take to eating men that prevents these animals as a rule from becoming the formidable pests which man-eating tigers appear to be in parts of India. But man-eating lions in Africa are not invariably old animals. One which killed thirty-seven human beings in 1887, on the Majili River, to the north-west of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, was, when at last he was killed, found to be an animal in the prime of life; whilst the celebrated man-eaters of the Tsavo River, in East Africa, were also apparently strong, healthy animals. These two man-eating lions caused such consternation amongst the Indian workmen on the Uganda Railway that the work of construction was considerably retarded, the helpless coolies refusing to remain any longer in a country where they were liable to be eaten on any night by a man-eating lion. Both these lions were at last shot by one of the engineers on the railway (Mr. J. H. Patterson), but not before they had killed and devoured twenty-eight Indian coolies and an unknown number of native Africans.

THE TIGER.

Tigers are the "type animal" of Asia. They are found nowhere else. Lions were inhabitants, even in historic times, of Europe, and are still common on the Euphrates and in parts of Persia, just as they were when the Assyrian kings shot them with arrows from their hunting-chariots. They survived in Greece far later than the days when story says that Hercules slew the Nemean lion in the Peloponnesus, for the baggage-animals of Xerxes' army of invasion were attacked by lions near Mount Athos. But the tiger never comes, and never did come in historic times, nearer to Europe than the Caucasian side of the Caspian Sea. On the other hand, they range very far north. All our tiger-lore is Indian. There is scarcely a story of tigers to be found in English books of sport which deals with the animal north of the line of the Himalaya. These Chinese northern tigers and the Siberian tigers are far larger than those of India. They have long woolly coats, in order to resist the cold. Their skins are brought to London in hundreds every year to the great fur-sales. But the animals {43}themselves we never see. The present writer was informed by a friend that in the Amur Valley he shot three of these tigers in a day, putting them up in thick bush-scrub by the aid of dogs.

The Royal Bengal Tiger, so called, and very properly called in the old books of natural history, is a different and far more savage beast. It is almost invariably a ferocious savage, fierce by nature, never wishing to be otherwise than a destroyer—of beasts mainly, but often of men. Compared with the lion, it is far longer, but rather lighter, for the lion is more massive and compact. "A well-grown tigress," says Sir Samuel Baker, "may weigh on an average 240 lbs. live weight. A very fine tiger may weigh 440 lbs., but if fat the same tiger would weigh 500 lbs. There may be tigers which weigh 50 lbs. more than this; but I speak according to my experience. I have found that a tiger of 9 feet 8 inches is about 2 inches above the average. The same skin may be stretched to measure 10 feet. A tiger in the Zoological Gardens is a long, lithe creature with little flesh. Such a specimen affords a poor example of this grand animal in its native jungles, with muscles in their full, ponderous development from continual exertion in nightly travels over long distances, and in mortal struggles when wrestling with its prey. A well-fed tiger is by no means a slim figure. On the contrary, it is exceedingly bulky, broad in the shoulders, back, and loins, and with an extraordinary girth of limbs, especially in the forearms and wrists."

This ponderous, active, and formidably armed creature is, as might be expected, able to hold its own wherever Europeans do not form part of the regular population. In India the peasants are quite helpless even against a cattle-killing tiger in a populous part of the country. In the large jungles, and on the islands at the mouths of the great rivers, the tigers have things {44}all their own way. Things are no better in the Far East. A large peninsula near Singapore is said to have been almost abandoned by its cultivators lately, owing to the loss of life caused by the tigers. In the populous parts of India the tiger is far more stealthy than in the out-of-the-way districts. It only hunts by night; and after eating a part of the animal killed, moves off to a distance, and does not return. Otherwise the regular habit is to return to the kill just at or after dusk, and finish the remainder. Its suspicions seem quite lulled to sleep after dark. Quite recently a sportsman sat up to watch for a tiger at a water-hole. It was in the height of the Indian hot season, when very little water was left. All the creatures of that particular neighbourhood were in the habit of coming to drink at one good pool still left in the rocky bed of the river. There the tigers came too. The first night they did not come until all the other creatures—hog, deer, peacocks, and monkeys—had been down to drink. They then came so softly over the sand that the gunner in waiting did not hear them pass. His first knowledge that they were there was due to the splashing they made as they entered the water. It was quite dark, and he felt not a little nervous, for the bush on which he was seated on a small platform was only some 10 feet high. He heard the two tigers pass him, not by their footsteps, but by the dripping of the water as it ran off their bodies on to the sand. Next night they came again. This time, though it was dark, he shot one in a very ingenious manner. The two tigers walked into the water, and apparently lay down or sat down in it, with their heads out. They only moved occasionally, lapping the water, but did not greatly disturb the surface. On this was reflected a bright star from the sky above. The sportsman put the sight of the rifle on the star, and kept it up to his shoulder. Something obliterated the star, and he instantly fired. The "something" was the tiger's head, which the bullet duly hit.

The hill-tigers of India are, or were, much more given to hunting by day than the jungle-tigers. In the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India the late General Douglas Hamilton said that before night the tigers were already about hunting, and that in the shade of evening it was dangerous to ride on a pony—not because the tigers wished to kill the rider, but because they might mistake the pony and its rider for a sambar deer. He was stalked like this more than once. Often, when stalking sambar deer and ibex by day, he saw the tigers doing the same, or after other prey. "My brother Richard," he writes, "was out after a tiger which the hillmen reported had killed a buffalo about an hour before. He saw the tiger on first getting to the ground, and the tiger had seen him. It was lying out in the open watching the buffalo, and shuffled into the wood, and would not come out again. Next morning, when we got to the ground, the tiger was moving from rock to rock, and had dragged the body into a nullah.... We were upon the point of starting home when we observed a number of vultures coming down to the carcase. The vultures began to collect in large numbers on the opposite hill. I soon counted fifty; but they would not go near the buffalo. Then some crows, bolder than the rest, flew down, and made a great row over their meal. All of a sudden they all flew up, and I made certain it was the tiger. Then my brother fired, and there he was, shot right through the brain, lying just above the buffalo. He had been brought down by the noise the crows were making. Upon driving the sholas (small woods on these hills), tigers were often put out. Sometimes they availed themselves of the drive to secure food for themselves. A wood was being driven, when a tremendous grunting was heard, and out rushed an old boar, bristling and savage. B—— was about to raise his rifle, when a growl like thunder stopped him, and a great tiger with one spring cleared the nullah, and alighted on the back of the old boar. Such a battle then took place that, what with the growls of the tiger and the squeals of the boar, one might believe oneself in another world. I thought of nothing but of how to kill one or the other, or both; so, as they were rolling down over and over, about fifty yards from me on the open hillside, I let fly both barrels. For a second or two the noise went on; then the tiger jumped off, and the boar struggled into the nullah close by. The tiger pulled up, and coolly stared at us without moving; but his courage seemed to fail him, and he sprang into the nullah and disappeared."

In most parts of India tigers are now scarce and shy, except in the preserves of the great rajas, and the dominions of some mighty and pious Hindu potentates, such as the Maharaja of Jeypur, who, being supposed to be descended from a Hindu god, allows no wild animals to be killed. There the deer and pig are so numerous that tigers are welcome to keep them down. But the Sunderbunds, unwholesome islands at the Ganges mouth, still swarm with them. So does the Malay Peninsula.

Mr. J. D. Cobbold shot a tiger in Central Asia in a swamp so deep in snow and so deadly cold that he dared not stay for fear of being frozen to death. Tigers sometimes wander as far west as the Caucasus near the Caspian. The farther north, the larger your tiger, is the rule. The biggest ever seen in Europe was a Siberian tiger owned by Herr Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, and the largest known skin and skull is from the Far {47}North. The skin is 13 feet 6 inches from the nose to the end of the tail. The largest Indian tiger-skin, from one killed by the Maharaja of Cuch Behar, measures 11 feet 7 inches.

LEOPARDS.

Less in size, but even more ferocious, the Leopard has a worse character than the tiger. Living mainly in trees, and very nocturnal, this fierce and dangerous beast is less often seen than far rarer animals. It is widely spread over the world, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Atlas Mountains, and from Southern China to the Black Sea, where it is sometimes met with in the Caucasus. There seems to be no legend of its presence in Greece, Italy, or Spain; but it was quite common in Asia Minor; and Cicero, when governor of Cilicia, was plagued by an aristocratic young friend in Rome to send him leopards to exhibit in a fête he was giving.

Any one who has frequented the Zoo for any time must have noticed the difference in size and colour between leopards from different parts of the world. On some the ground-colour is almost white, in others a clear nut-brown. Others are jet-black. Wherever they live, they are cattle thieves, sheep thieves, and dog thieves. Though not formidable in appearance, they are immensely strong. Sometimes one will turn man-eater. Both in India and lately in Africa cases have been known where they have "set up" in this line as deliberately as any tiger. They have four or five young at a birth, which may often be kept tame for some time and are amusing pets. But the following plain story shows the danger of such experiments. At Hong-kong an English merchant had a tame leopard, which was brought into the room by a coolie for the guests to see at a dinner party. Excited by the smell of food, it refused to go out when one of the ladies, who did not like its looks, wished for it to be removed. The man took hold of its collar and began to haul it out. It seized him by the neck, bit it through, and in a minute the coolie was dying, covered with blood, on the dining-room floor!

The Chinese leopard ranges as far north as the Siberian tiger, and, like the latter, seems to grow larger the farther north it is found. The colour of these northern leopards is very pale, the spots large, and the fur very long. At the March fur-sales of the present year, held at the stores of Sir Charles Lampson, there were Siberian leopard-skins as large as those of a small tiger.

Leopards are essentially tree-living and nocturnal animals. Sleeping in trees or caves by day, they are seldom disturbed. They do an incredible amount of mischief among cattle, calves, sheep, and dogs, being especially fond of killing and eating the latter. They seize their prey by the throat, and cling with their claws until they succeed in breaking the spine or in strangling the victim. The largest leopards are popularly called Panthers. In India they sometimes become man-eaters, and are always very dangerous. They have a habit of feeding on putrid flesh; this makes wounds inflicted by their teeth or claws liable to blood-poisoning. Nothing in the way of prey comes amiss to them, from a cow in the pasture to a fowl up at roost. "In every country," says Sir Samuel Baker, "the natives are unanimous in saying that the leopard is more dangerous than the lion or tiger. Wherever I have been in Africa, the natives have declared that they had no fear of a lion, provided they were not hunting, for it would not attack unprovoked, but that a leopard was never to be trusted. I remember when a native boy, accompanied by his grown-up brother, was busily employed with others in firing the reeds on the opposite bank of a small stream. Being thirsty and hot, the boy stooped down to drink, when he was immediately seized by a leopard. His brother, with admirable aim, hurled his spear at the leopard while the boy was in his jaws. The point separated the vertebræ of the neck, and the leopard fell stone-dead. The boy was carried to my hut, but there was no chance of recovery. The fangs had torn open the chest and injured the lungs. These were exposed to view through the cavity of the ribs. He died the same night."

In the great mountain-ranges of Central Asia the beautiful Snow-leopard is found. It is a large creature, with thick, woolly coat, and a long tail like a fur boa. The colour is white, clouded with beautiful grey, like that of an Angora cat. The edges of the cloudings and spots are marked with black or darker grey. The eyes are very large, bluish grey or smoke-coloured. It lives on the wild sheep, ibex, and other mountain animals. In captivity it is far the tamest and gentlest of the large carnivora, not excepting the puma. Unlike the latter, it is a sleepy, quiet animal, like a domestic cat. The specimen shown here belonged to a lady in India, who kept it for some time as a pet. It was then brought to the Zoological Gardens, where it was more amiable and friendly than most cats. The writer has entered its cage with the keeper, stroked it, and patted its head, without in the least ruffling its good-temper. The heat of the lion-house did not suit it, and it died of consumption.

THE NEW WORLD CATS.

The cats, great and small, of the New World resemble those of the Old, though not quite so closely as the caribou, wapiti deer, and moose of the northern forests resemble the reindeer, red deer, and elk of Europe. They are like, but with a difference. The Jaguar and the Ocelot are respectively larger and far more beautiful than their counterparts, the leopard and serval cats. But the Puma, the one medium-sized feline animal which is unspotted, is something unique. The jaguar and puma are found very far south in South America; and though the jaguar is really a forest animal, it seems to have wandered out on to the Pampas of Argentina, perhaps attracted by the immense numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses on these plains.

The Jaguar.

The Jaguar is as savage as it is formidable, but does not often attack men. Its headquarters are the immense forests running from Central America to Southern Brazil; and as all great forests are little inhabited, the jaguar is seldom encountered by white men. By the banks of the great rivers it is semi-aquatic; it swims and climbs with equal ease, and will attack animals on board boats anchored in the rivers. As there are few animals of great size in these forests, its great strength is not often seen exercised, as is that of the lion; but it is the personification of concentrated force, and its appearance is well worth studying from that point of view. The spots are larger and squarer than in the leopard, the head ponderous, the forearms and feet one mass of muscle, knotted under the velvet skin. On the Amazons it draws its food alike from the highest tree-tops and the river-bed; in the former it catches monkeys in the branches, fish in the shallows of the rivers, and scoops out turtles' eggs from the sandbanks. Humboldt, who visited these regions when the white population {51}was scarce, declared that 4,000 jaguars were killed annually, and 2,000 skins exported from Buenos Ayres alone. It was clearly common on the Pampas in his day, and made as great havoc among the cattle and horses as it does to-day.

The Puma.

The Puma is a far more interesting creature. It is found from the mountains in Montana, next the Canadian boundary, to the south of Patagonia. Yankee stories of its ferocity may have some foundation; but the writer believes there is no recorded instance of the northern puma attacking man unprovoked, though in the few places where it now survives it kills cattle-calves and colts. It is relentlessly hunted with dogs, treed, and shot. As to the puma of the southern plains and central forests, the natives, whether Indians or Gauchos, agree with the belief, steadily handed down from the days of the first Spanish conquest, that the puma is the one wild cat which is naturally friendly to man. The old Spaniards called it amigo del Cristiano (the Christian's friend); and Mr. Hudson, in "The Naturalist in La Plata," gives much evidence of this most curious and interesting tendency: "It is notorious that where the puma is the only large beast of prey it is perfectly safe for a small child to go out and sleep on the plain.... The puma is always at heart a kitten, taking unmeasured delight in its frolics; and when, as often happens, one lives alone in the desert, it will amuse itself for hours fighting mock battles or playing hide-and-seek with imaginary companions, or lying in wait and putting all its wonderful strategy in practice to capture a passing butterfly." From Azara downwards these stories have been told too often not to be largely true; and in old natural {52}histories, whose writers believed the puma was a terrible man-eater, they also appear as "wonderful escapes." One tells how a man put his poncho, or cloak, over his back when crawling up to get a shot at some duck, and felt something heavy on the end of it. He crept from under it, and there was a puma sitting on it, which did not offer to hurt him.

As space forbids further quotation from Mr. Hudson's experiences, which should be read, the writer will only add one anecdote which was told him by Mr. Everard im Thurn, C.B., formerly an official in British Guiana. He was going up one of the big rivers in his steam-launch, and gave a passage to an elderly and respectable Cornish miner, who wanted to go up to a gold-mine. The visitor had his meals on the boat, but at night went ashore with the men and slung his hammock between two trees, leaving the cabin to his host. One morning two of the Indian crew brought the miner's hammock on board with a good deal of laughing and talking. Their master asked what the joke was, whereupon, pointing to the trees whence they had unslung the hammock, one said, "Tiger sleep with old man last night." They were quite in earnest, and pointed out a hollow and marks on the leaves, which showed that a puma had been lying just under the man's hammock. When asked if he had noticed anything in the night, he said, "Only the frogs croaking wakened me up." The croaking of the frogs was probably the hoarse purring of the friendly puma enjoying his proximity to a sleeping man. Mr. Hudson quotes a case in which four pumas played round and leapt over a person camping out on the Pampas. He watched them for some time, and then went to sleep! Many of those brought to this country come with their tempers ruined by ill-treatment and hardship; but a large proportion are as tame as cats. Captain Marshall had one at Marlow which used to follow him on a chain and watch the boats full of pleasure-seekers at the lock.

The puma is always a beautiful creature,—the fur cinnamon-coloured, tinged with gold; the belly and chest white; the tail long, full, and round. Though friendly to man, it is a desperate cattle-killer, and particularly fond of horse-flesh, so much so that it has been suggested that the indigenous wild horses of America were destroyed by the puma.

There are two other cats of the Pampas—the Grass-cat, not unlike our wild cat in appearance and habits, and the Wood-cat, or Geoffroy's Cat. It is a tabby, and a most elegant creature, of which there is a specimen, at the time of writing, in the London Zoo.

The Ocelot.

In the forest region is also found the most beautiful of the medium-sized cats. This is the Ocelot, which corresponds somewhat to the servals, but is not the least like a lynx, as {53}the servals are. It is entirely a tree-cat, and lives on birds and monkeys. The following detailed description of its coloration appeared in "Life at the Zoo":—

"Its coat, with the exception perhaps of that of the clouded leopard of Sumatra, marks the highest development of ornament among four-footed animals. The Argus pheasant alone seems to offer a parallel to the beauties of the ocelot's fur, especially in the development of the wonderful ocelli, which, though never reaching in the beast the perfect cup-and-ball ornament seen on the wings of the bird, can be traced in all the early stages of spots and wavy lines, so far as the irregular shell-shaped rim and dot on the feet, sides, and back, just as in the subsidiary ornament of the Argus pheasant's feathers. Most of the ground-tint of the fur is smoky-pearl colour, on which the spots develop from mere dots on the legs and speckles on the feet and toes to large egg-shaped ocelli on the flanks. There are also two beautiful pearl-coloured spots on the back of each ear, like those which form the common ornaments of the wings of many moths."

The nose is pink; the eye large, convex, and translucent.

A tame ocelot described by Wilson, the American naturalist, was most playful and affectionate, but when fed with flesh was less tractable. It jumped on to the back of a horse in the stable, and tried to curl up on its hindquarters. The horse threw the ocelot off and kicked it, curing it of any disposition to ride. On seeing a horse, the ocelot always ran off to its kennel afterwards. When sent to England, it caught hold of and threw down a child of four years old, whom it rolled about with its paws without hurting it.

OTHER WILD CATS.

A handsome leopard-like animal is the Clouded Leopard. It is the size of a small common leopard, but far gentler in disposition. Its fur is not spotted, but marked with clouded patches, outlined in grey and olive-brown. Its skin is among the most beautiful of the Cats. It is found in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Formosa, and along the foot of the Himalaya from Nepal to Assam. Writing of two which he kept, Sir Stamford Raffles said: "No kitten could be more good-tempered. They were always courting intercourse with persons passing by, and in the expression of their countenance showed the greatest delight when noticed, throwing themselves on their backs, and delighting in being tickled and rubbed. On board ship there was a small dog, which used to play around the cage with the animal. It was amusing to watch the tenderness and playfulness with which the latter came in contact with its smaller-sized companion." Both specimens were procured from the banks of the Bencoolin River, in Sumatra. They are generally found near villages, and are not dreaded by the natives, except in so far that they destroy their poultry.

The number of smaller leopard-cats and tiger-cats is very great. They fall, roughly, into three groups: those which are yellow and spotted, those which are grey and spotted, and those which are grey and striped, or "whole-coloured." There is no wholly grey wild cat, but several sandy-coloured species. All live on birds and small mammals, and probably most share the tame cat's liking for fish. Among the grey-and-spotted cats are the Mottled Cat of the Eastern Himalaya and Straits Settlements and islands; the Tibetian Tiger-cat; the Fishing-cat of India and Ceylon, which is large enough to kill lambs, but lives much on fish and large marsh-snails; Geoffroy's Cat, an American species; the Leopard-cat of Java and Japan, which seems to have grey fur in Japan and a fulvous leopard-like skin in India, where it is also called the Tiger-cat; and the smallest of all wild cats, the little Rusty-spotted Cat of India. This has rusty spots on a grey ground. "I had a kitten brought to me," says Dr. Jerdon of the species, "when very young. It became quite tame, and was the delight and admiration of all who saw it. When it was about eight months old, I introduced the fawn of a gazelle into the room where it was. The little creature flew at it the moment it saw it, seized it by the nape of the neck, and was with difficulty taken off." Of the whole-coloured wild cats—which include the Bay Cat, the American Pampas-cat, Pallas' Cat of Tibet and India—the most beautiful is the Golden Cat of Sumatra, one of which is now in the Zoological Gardens. It has a coat the colour of gold-stone. The nose is pink, the eyes large and topaz-coloured, the cheeks striped with white, and the under-parts and lower part of the tail pure white.

Four kinds of wild cats are known in South Africa, of which the largest is the Serval, a short-tailed, spotted animal, with rather more woolly fur than the leopard's. The length is about 4 feet 2 inches, of which the tail is only 12 inches. It is found from Algeria to the Cape; but its favourite haunts, like those of all the wild cats of hot countries, are in the reeds by rivers. It kills hares, rats, birds, and small mammals generally.

The Black-footed Wild Cat is another African species. It is a beautiful spotted-and-lined tabby, the size of a small domestic cat, and as likely as any other to be the origin of our tabby variety, if tame cats came to Europe from Africa. At present it is only found south in the Kalahari Desert and Bechuanaland.

The Kaffir Cat is the common wild cat of the Cape Colony, and a very interesting animal. It is a whole-coloured tawny, upstanding animal, with all the indifference to man and generally independent character of the domestic tom-cat. {57}It is, however, much stronger than the tame cats, with which it interbreeds freely. In the Colony it is often difficult to keep male tame cats, for the wild Kaffir cats come down and fight them in the breeding-season. The Egyptian cat is really the same animal, slightly modified by climate. A very distinct species is the Jungle-cat, ranging from India, through Baluchistan, Syria, and East Africa, and called in Hindustani the Chaus. The European striped wild cat extends to the Himalaya, where the range of the lion-coloured, yellow-eyed chaus begins. The chaus has a few black bars inside the legs, which vary in different regions. The Indian chaus has only one distinctly marked; the Kaffir cat has four or five. The Egyptian Fettered Cat has been said to be the origin of the domestic and sacred cats of Egypt. A male chaus is most formidable when "cornered." General Hamilton chased one, which had prowled into the cantonments on the look-out for fowls, into a fence. "After a long time I spied the cat squatting in a hedge," he writes, "and called for the dogs. When they came, I knelt down and began clapping my hands and cheering them on. The cat suddenly made a clean spring at my face. I had just time to catch it as one would a cricket-ball, and, giving its ribs a strong squeeze, threw it to the dogs; but not before it had made its teeth meet in my arm just above the wrist. For some weeks I had to carry my arm in a sling, and I shall carry the marks of the bite to my grave."

The chaus, as will be seen from the above, wanders boldly down into the outskirts of large towns, cantonments, and bungalows, on the look-out for chickens and pigeons. Its favourite plan is to lie up at dawn in some piece of thick cover near to where the poultry wander out to scratch, feed, and bask. It then pounces on the nearest unhappy hen and rushes off with it into cover. An acquaintance of the writer once had a number of fine Indian game fowl, of which he was not a little proud. He noticed that one was missing every morning for three days, and, not being able to discover the robber, shut them up in a hen-house. Next morning he heard a great commotion outside, and one of his bearers came running in to say that a leopard was in the hen-house. As this was only built of bamboo or some such light material, it did not seem probable that a leopard would stay there. Getting his rifle, he went out into the compound, and cautiously approached the hen-house, in which the fowls were still making loud protests and cries of alarm. The door was shut; but some creature—certainly not a leopard—might have squeezed in through the small entrance used by the hens. He opened the door, and saw at the back of the hen-house a chaus sitting, with all its fur on end, {58}looking almost as large as a small leopard. On the floor was one dead fowl. The impudent jungle-cat rushed for the door, but had the coolness to seize the hen as it passed, and with this in its mouth rushed past the owner of the hens, his servants and retainers, and reached a piece of thick scrub near with its prize.

As the chaus is common both in India and Africa, a comparison of its habits in both continents is somewhat interesting. Jerdon, the Indian naturalist, writes: "It is the common wild cat from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and from the level of the sea to 7,000 or 8,000 feet elevation. It frequents alike the jungles and the open country, and is very partial to long reeds, and grass, sugarcane-fields, and corn-fields. It does much damage to all game, especially to hares and partridges. Quite recently I shot a pea-fowl at the edge of a sugarcane-field. One of these cats sprang out, seized the pea-fowl, and after a short struggle—for the bird was not quite dead—carried it off before my astonished eyes, and, in spite of my running up, made his escape with his booty. It must have been stalking these very birds, so closely did its spring follow my shot. It is said to breed twice a year, and to have three or four young at a birth. I have very often had the young brought to me, but always failed in rearing them; and they always showed a savage and untamable disposition. I have seen numbers of cats about villages in various parts of the country that must have been hybrids between this cat and the tame ones."

The late Sir Oliver St. John was more fortunate with his jungle-cat kittens. He obtained three in Persia. These he reared till they were three months old, by which time they became so tame that they would climb on to his knees at breakfast-time, and behave like ordinary kittens. One was killed by a greyhound, and another by a scorpion—a curious fate for a kitten to meet. The survivor then became morose and ill-tempered, but grew to be a large and strong animal. "Two English bull-terriers of mine, which would make short work of the largest domestic cat, could do nothing against my wild cat," says the same writer. "In their almost daily battles the dogs always got the worst of it."

In Africa the chaus haunts the thick cover bordering the rivers. There it catches not only water-fowl, but also fish. According to Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, "its spoor may constantly be seen imprinted on the mud surrounding such pools in the periodical watercourses as are constantly being dried up, and in which fish may probably be imprisoned without chance of escape." The chaus has for neighbour in Africa the beautiful Serval, a larger wild cat. This species is reddish in colour, spotted on the body, and striped on the legs. The ears are long, but not tufted, like those of the lynx. The serval is more common in North and Central Africa than in the South. But it is also found south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington say of it: "Northward through South Central Africa it is fairly common. It frequents the thick bush in the vicinity of rivers. The karosses, or mantles, made from its skins are only worn by the chiefs and very high dignitaries amongst the native tribes, and are in consequence eagerly sought after, on which account the species runs a risk of rapid extermination. Its usual prey consists of the young of the smaller antelopes, francolins, and wild guinea-fowls, to the latter of which it is a most destructive enemy in the breeding-season. When obtained young, the serval can be tamed with little trouble; but it is difficult to rear, and always shows a singular and almost unaccountable aversion to black men. Its otherwise even temper is always aroused at the sight of a native. When in anger, it is by no means a despicable antagonist, and very few dogs would like to engage in a combat with one single-handed."

The Common Wild Cat.

The Wild Cat was once fairly common all over England. A curious story, obviously exaggerated, shows that traditions of its ferocity were common at a very early date. The tale is told of the church of Barnborough, in Yorkshire, between Doncaster and Barnsley. It is said that a man and a wild cat met in a wood near and began to fight; that the cat drove the man out of the wood as far as the church, where he took refuge in the porch; and that both the man and cat were so injured that they died. According to Dr. Pearce, the event was formerly commemorated by a rude painting in the church.

Mr. Charles St. John had an experience with a Scotch wild cat very like that which General Douglas Hamilton tells of the jungle-cat. He heard many stories of their attacking and wounding men when trapped or when their escape was cut off, and before long found out that these were true. "I was fishing in a river in Sutherland," he wrote, "and in passing from one pool to another had to climb over some rocky ground. In doing so, I sank almost up to my knees in some rotten heather and moss, almost upon a wild cat which was concealed under it. I was quite as much startled as the cat itself could be, when I saw the wild-looking beast rush so unexpectedly from between my feet, with every hair on her body on end, making her look twice as large as she really was. I had three small Skye terriers with me, which immediately gave chase, and pursued her till she took refuge in a corner of the rocks, where, perched in a kind of recess out of reach of her enemies, she stood with her hair bristled out, spitting and growling like a common cat. Having no weapon with me, I laid down my rod, cut a good-sized stick, and proceeded to dislodge her. As soon as I was within six or seven feet of the place, she sprang straight at my face over the dogs' heads. Had I not struck her in mid-air as she leaped at me, I should probably have received a severe wound. As it was, she fell with her back half broken among the dogs, who with my assistance dispatched her. I never saw an animal fight so desperately, or one which was so difficult to kill. If a tame cat has nine lives, a wild cat must have a dozen. Sometimes one of these animals will take up its residence at no great distance from a house, and, entering the hen-roosts and outbuildings, will carry off fowls in the most audacious manner, or even lambs. Like other {61}vermin, the wild cat haunts the shores of lakes and rivers, and it is therefore easy to know where to set a trap for them. Having caught and killed one of the colony, the rest of them are sure to be taken if the body of their slain relative is left in the same place not far from their usual hunting-ground and surrounded with traps, as every wild cat passing that way will to a certainty come to it."

The wild cat ranges from the far north of Scotland, across Europe and Northern Asia, to the northern slopes of the Himalaya. It has always been known as one of the fiercest and wildest of the cats, large or small. The continual ill-temper of these creatures is remarkable. In the experience of the keepers of menageries there is no other so intractably savage. One presented to the Zoological Gardens by Lord Lilford some eight years ago still snarls and spits at any one who comes near it, even the keeper.

The food of the wild cat is grouse, mountain-hares, rabbits, small birds, and probably fish caught in the shallow waters when chance offers. It is wholly nocturnal; consequently no one ever sees it hunting for prey. Though it has long been confined to the north and north-west of Scotland, it is by no means on the verge of extinction. The deer-forests are saving it to some extent, as they did the golden eagle. Grouse and hares are rather in the way when deer are being stalked; consequently the wild cat and the eagle are not trapped or shot. The limits of its present fastnesses were recently fixed by careful Scotch naturalists at the line of the Caledonian Canal. Mr. Harvie Brown, in 1880, said that it only survived in Scotland north of a line running from Oban to the junction of the three counties of Perth, Forfar, and Aberdeen, and thence through Banffshire to Inverness. But the conclusion of a writer in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1898, in a very interesting article on the survival of British mammals, has been happily contradicted. He believed that it only survived in the deer-forests of Inverness and Sutherlandshire. The wild cats shown in the illustrations of these pages were caught a year later as far south as Argyllshire. The father and two kittens were all secured, practically unhurt, and purchased by Mr. Percy Leigh Pemberton for his collection of British mammals at Ashford, in Kent. This gentleman has had great success in preserving his wild cats. They, as well as others—martens, polecats, and other small carnivora—are fed on fresh wild rabbits killed in a warren near; consequently they are in splendid condition. The old "tom" wild cat, snarling with characteristic ill-humour, was well supported by the wild and savage little kittens, which exhibited all the family temper. Shortly {62}before the capture of these wild cats another family were trapped in Aberdeenshire and brought to the Zoological Gardens. Four kittens, beautiful little savages, with bright green eyes, and uninjured, were safely taken to Regent's Park. But the quarters given them were very small and cold, and they all died. Two other full-grown wild cats brought there a few years earlier were so dreadfully injured by the abominable steel traps in which they were caught that they both died of blood-poisoning.

The real wild cats differ in their markings on the body, some being more clearly striped, while others are only brindled. But they are all alike in the squareness and thickness of head and body, and in the short tail, ringed with black, and growing larger at the tip, which ends off like a shaving-brush.

It may well be asked, Which of the many species of wild cats mentioned above is the ancestor of our domestic cats? Probably different species in different countries. The African Kaffir cat, the Indian leopard-cat, the rusty-spotted cat of India, and the European wild cat all breed with tame cats. It is therefore probable that the spotted, striped, and brindled varieties of tame cats are descended from wild species which had those markings. The so-called red tame cats are doubtless descended from the tiger-coloured wild cats. But it is a curious fact that, though the spotted grey-tabby wild varieties are the least common, that colour is most frequent in the tame species.

THE LYNXES.

In the Lynxes we seem to have a less specially cat-like form. They are short-tailed, high in the leg, and broad-faced. Less active than the leopards and tiger-cats, and able to live either in very hot or very cold countries, they are found from the Persian deserts to the far north of Siberia and Canada.

The Caracal is a southern, hot-country lynx. It has a longer tail than the others, but the same tufted ears. It seems a link between the lynxes and the jungle-cats. It is found in India, Palestine, Persia, and Mesopotamia. In India it was trained, like the cheeta, to {63}catch birds, gazelles, and hares. The Common Lynx is probably the same animal, whether found in Norway, Russia, the Carpathians, Turkestan, China, or Tibet. The Canadian Lynx is also very probably the same, with local differences of colour. The Northern Lynx is the largest feline animal left in Europe, and kills sheep and goats equally with hares and squirrels. The beautiful fur, of pale cinnamon and light grey, is much admired. In some southern districts of America we have the Red Lynx, or so-called "wild cat," which is distinct from the lynx of Canada. The Mediterranean or Spanish Lynx seems likewise entitled to rank as a distinct species.

Of the lynxes the Caracals are perhaps the most interesting, from their capacity for domestication. They are found in Africa in the open desert country, whereas the Serval is found in the thick bush. In Africa it is believed to be the most savage and untamable of the Cats. That is probably because the Negro and the Kaffir never possessed the art of training animals, from the elephant downwards. In India the caracal's natural prey are the fawns of deer and antelope, pea-fowl, hares, and floricans. The caracal is the quickest with its feet of any of the Cats. One of its best-known feats is to spring up and catch birds passing over on the wing at a height of six or eight feet from the ground. A writer, in the Naturalist's Library, notes that, besides being tamed to catch deer, pea-fowl, and cranes, the caracal was used in "pigeon matches." Two caracals were backed one against the other to kill pigeons. The birds were fed on the ground, and the caracals suddenly let loose among them, to strike down as many as each could before the birds escaped. Each would sometimes strike down with its fore paws ten or a dozen pigeons. "Caracal" means in Turkish "Black Ear," in allusion to the colour of the animal's organ of hearing.

The Common Lynx is a thick-set animal, high in the leg, with a square head and very strong paws and forearms. It is found across the whole northern region of Europe and Asia. Although never known in Britain in historic times, it is still occasionally seen in parts of the Alps and in the Carpathians; it is also common in the Caucasus. It is mainly a forest animal, and very largely nocturnal; therefore it is seldom seen, and not often hunted. If any enemy approaches, the lynx lies perfectly still on some branch or rock, and generally succeeds in avoiding notice. The lynx is extremely active; it can leap great distances, and makes its {64}attack usually in that way. When travelling, it trots or gallops in a very dog-like fashion. Where sheep graze at large on mountains, as in the Balkans and in Greece, the lynx is a great enemy of the flocks. In Norway, where the animal is now very rare, there is a tradition that it is more mischievous than the wolf, and a high price is set on its head.

In Siberia and North Russia most of the lynx-skins taken are sold to the Chinese. The lynx-skins brought to London are mainly those of the Canadian species. The fur is dyed, and used for the busbies of the officers in our hussar regiments. These skins vary much in colour, and in length and quality of fur. The price varies correspondingly. The Canadian lynx lives mainly on the wood-hares and on the wood-grouse of the North American forests. The flesh of the lynx is said to be good and tender.

Brehm says of the Siberian lynx: "It is a forest animal in the strictest sense of the word. But in Siberia it occurs only singly, and is rarely captured. Its true home is in the thickest parts in the interior of the woods, and these it probably never leaves except when scarcity of food or the calls of love tempt it to wander to the outskirts. Both immigrants and natives hold the hunting of the lynx in high esteem. This proud cat's activity, caution and agility, and powers of defence arouse the enthusiasm of every sportsman, and both skin and flesh are valued, the latter not only by the Mongolian tribes, but also by the Russian hunters. The lynx is seldom captured in fall-traps; he often renders them useless by walking along the beam and stepping on the lever, and he usually leaps over the spring-traps in his path. So only the rifle and dogs are left."

The Red Lynx is a small American variety, the coat of which turns tawny in summer, when it much resembles a large cat. It is called in some parts of the United States the Mountain-cat. This lynx is 30 inches long in the body, with a tail 6 inches long. It is found on the eastern or Atlantic side of the continent, and by no means shuns the neighbourhood of settlements.

THE CHEETA.

THE NON-RETRACTILE-CLAWED CAT.

The Cheeta, or Hunting-leopard, is the only example of this particular group, though there was an extinct form, whose remains are found in the Siwalik Hills, in the north of India. It is a very widely dispersed animal, found in Persia, Turkestan, and the countries east of the Caspian, and in India so far as the lower part of the centre of the peninsula. It is also common in Africa, where until recent years it was found in Cape Colony and Natal. Now it is banished to the Kalahari Desert, the Northern Transvaal, and Bechuanaland.

The cheeta is more dog-like than any other cat. It stands high on the leg, and has a short, rounded head. Its fur is short and rather woolly, its feet rounded, and its claws, instead of slipping back into sheaths like a lion's, are only partly retractile.

Mr. Lockwood Kipling gives the following account of the cheeta and its keepers: "The only point where real skill comes into play in dealing with the hunting-leopard is in catching the adult animal when it has already learnt the swift, bounding onset, its one accomplishment. The young cheeta is not worth catching, for it has not yet learnt its trade, nor can it be taught in captivity.... There are certain trees where these great dog-cats (for they have some oddly canine characteristics) come to play and whet their claws. The hunters find such a tree, and arrange nooses of deer-sinew round it, and wait the event. The animal comes and is caught by the leg, and it is at this point that the trouble begins. It is no small achievement for two or three naked, ill-fed men to secure so fierce a capture and carry it home tied on a cart. Then his training begins. He is tied in all directions, principally from a thick rope round his loins, while a hood fitted over his head effectually blinds him. He is fastened on a strong cot-bedstead, and the keepers and their wives and families reduce him to submission by starving him and keeping him awake. His head is made to face the village street, and for an hour at a time, several times a day, his keepers make pretended rushes at him, and wave clothes, staves, and other articles in his face. He is talked to continually, and the women's tongues are believed to be the most effective of things to keep him awake. No created being could withstand the effects of hunger, want of sleep, and feminine scolding; and the poor cheeta becomes piteously, abjectly tame. He is taken out for a walk occasionally—if a slow crawl between four attendants, all holding hard, can be called a walk—and his promenades are always through the crowded streets and bazaars, where the keepers' friends are to be found; but the people are rather pleased than otherwise to see the raja's cheetas amongst them." Later, when the creature is tamed, "the cheeta's bedstead is like that of the keeper, and leopard and man are often curled up under the same blanket! When his bedfellow is restless, the keeper lazily stretches out an arm from his end of the cot and dangles a tassel over the animal's head, which seems to soothe him. In the early morning I have seen a cheeta sitting up on his couch, a red blanket half covering him, and his tasselled red hood awry, looking exactly like an elderly gentleman in a nightcap, as he yawns with the irresolute air of one who is in doubt whether to rise or to turn in for another nap."

This charming and accurate description shows the cheeta at home. In the field he is quite another creature. He is driven as near as possible to the game, and then unhooded and given a sight of them. Sir Samuel Baker thus describes a hunt in which a cheeta was used: "The chase began after the right-hand buck, which had a start of about 110 yards. It was a magnificent sight to see the extraordinary speed of pursuer and pursued. The buck flew over the level surface, followed by the cheeta, which was laying out at full stretch, with its long, thick tail brandishing in the air. They had run 200 yards, when the keeper gave the word, and away we went as fast as our horses could carry us. The horses could go over this clear ground, where no danger of a fall seemed possible. I never saw anything to equal the speed of the buck and the cheeta; we were literally nowhere, although we were going as hard as horseflesh could carry us; but we had a glorious view. The cheeta was gaining in the course, while the buck was exerting every muscle for life or death in its last race. Presently, after a course of about a quarter of a mile, the buck doubled like a hare, and the cheeta lost ground as it shot ahead, instead of turning quickly, being only about thirty yards in rear of the buck. Recovering itself, it turned on extra steam, and the race appeared to recommence at increased speed. The cheeta was determined to win, and at this moment the buck made another double in the hope of shaking off its terrible pursuer; but this time the cheeta ran cunning, and was aware of the former game. It turned as sharply as the buck. Gathering itself together for a final effort, it shot forward like an arrow, picked up the distance which remained between them, and in a cloud of dust we could for one moment distinguish two forms. The next instant the buck was on its back, and the cheeta's fangs were fixed like an iron vice in its throat. The course run was about 600 yards, and it was worth a special voyage to India to see that hunt."

THE DOMESTIC CAT.

BY LOUIS WAIN.

Of the domestication of the cat we know very little, but it is recorded that a tribe of cats was trained to retrieve—i.e. to fetch and carry game. In our own time I have seen many cats fetch and carry corks and newspapers, and on one occasion pounce upon a small roach at the end of a line and place it at its owner's feet. Gamekeepers whom I have known agree that, for cunning, craftiness, and tenacity in attaining an object, the semi-wild cat of the woods shows far superior intelligence to the rest of the woodland denizens. It is quite a usual thing to hear of farm cats entering upon a snake-hunting expedition with the greatest glee, and showing remarkable readiness in pitching upon their quarry and pinning it down until secured. These farm cats are quite a race by themselves. Of decided sporting proclivities, they roam the countryside with considerable fierceness, and yet revert to the domesticity of the farmhouse fireside as though innocent of roving instincts. They are spasmodic to a degree in their mode of life, and apparently work out one mood before entering upon another. It will be remembered that this spasmodic tendency—the true feline independence, by-the-bye—is and has been characteristic of the cat throughout its history, and any one who has tried to overcome it has met with failure.

Watch your own cat, and you will see that he will change his sleeping-quarters periodically; and if he can find a newspaper conveniently placed, he will prefer it to lie upon, before anything perhaps, except a cane-bottomed chair, to which all cats are very partial. If you keep a number of cats, as I do, you will find that they are very imitative, and what one gets in the habit of doing they will all do in time: for instance, one of my cats took to sitting with his front paws inside my tall hat and his body outside, and this has become a catty fashion in the family, whether the object be a hat, cap, bonnet, small basket, box, or tin. If by chance one of the cats is attacked by a dog, a peculiar cry from the aggrieved animal will immediately awaken the others out of their lethargy or sleep, and bring them fiercely to the rescue. They are, too, particularly kind and nice to the old cat, and are tolerant only of strange baby kittens and very old cats in the garden as long as they do not interfere with the "catty" subject. The same quality obtains in Spain or Portugal, where a race of scavenging cats exists, which go about in droves or families, and are equal to climbing straight walls, big trees, chimneys, and mountain-sides. Long, lanky, and thin, they are built more on the lines of a greyhound than the ordinary cat, and are more easily trained in tricks than home cats.

The Tortoiseshell has long been looked upon as the national cat of Spain, and in fact that country is overrun with the breed, ranging from a dense black and brown to lighter shades of orange-brown and white. The pure tortoiseshell might be called a black and tan, with no white, streaked like a tortoiseshell comb if possible, and with wonderful amber eyes. It is characteristic of their intelligence that they will invariably find their way home, and will even bring that mysterious instinct to bear which guides them back long distances to the place of their birth; and, with regard to this cat, the stories of almost impossible journeys made are not one bit exaggerated. The tom-cats of this breed are very rare in England; I myself have only known of the existence of six in fifteen years, and of these but three are recorded in the catalogues of our cat shows.

The Black Cat has many of the characteristics of the tortoiseshell, but is essentially a town cat, and is wont to dream his life away in shady corners, in underground cellars, in theatres, and in all places where he can, in fact, retire to monastic quiet. The black cat of St. Clement Danes Church was one of the remarkable cats of London. It was his wont to climb on to the top of the organ-pipes and enjoy an occasional musical concert alone. A christening or a wedding was his pride; and many people can vouch for a lucky wedding who had the good-fortune to be patronised by the black cat of St. Clement Danes, which walked solemnly down the aisle of the church in front of the happy couples.

My old pet Peter was a black-and-white cat, and, like most of his kind, was one of the most remarkable cats for intelligence I have ever known. A recital of his accomplishments would, however, have very few believers—a fact I find existing in regard to all really intelligent cats. There are so many cats of an opposite character, and people will rarely take more than a momentary trouble to win the finer nature of an animal into existence. Suffice it to say, that Peter would lie and die, sit up with spectacles on his nose and with a post-card between his paws—a trick I have taught many people's cats to do. He would also mew silent meows when bid, and wait at the door for my home-coming. For a long time, too, it was customary to hear weird footfalls at night outside the bedroom doors, and visitors to the house were a little more superstitious as to their cause than we were ourselves. We set a watch upon the supposed ghost, but sudden opening of the doors discovered only the mystic form of Peter sitting purring on the stairs. He was, however, ultimately caught in the act of lifting the corner of the door-rug and letting it fall back in its place, and he had grown quite expert in his method of raising and dropping it at regular intervals until he heard that his signals had produced the required effect, and the door was opened to admit him.

White Cats I might call musical cats, for it is quite characteristic of the albinoes that noises rarely startle them out of their simpering, loving moods. The scraping of a violin, which will scare an ordinary cat out of its senses, or the thumping of a piano, which would terrorise even strong-nerved cats, would only incite a white cat to a happier mood. Certainly all white cats are somewhat {71}deaf, or lack acute quality of senses; but this failing rather softens the feline nature than becomes dominant as a weakness.

The nearest to perfection perhaps, and yet at the same time extremely soft and finely made, is the Blue Cat, rare in England as an English cat, but common in most other countries, and called in America the Maltese Cat—for fashion's sake probably, since it is too widely distributed there to be localised as of foreign origin. It is out in the mining districts and agricultural quarters, right away from the beaten tracks of humanity, where the most wonderful breeds of cats develop in America; and caravan showmen have told me that at one time it was quite a business for them to carry cats into these wildernesses, and sell them to rough, hardy miners, who dealt out death to each other without hesitation in a quarrel, but who softened to the appeal of an animal which reminded them of homelier times.

One man told me that upon one occasion he sold eight cats at an isolated mining township in Colorado, and some six days' journey farther on he was caught up by a man on horseback from the township, who had ridden hard to overtake the menagerie caravan, with the news that one of the cats had climbed a monster pine-tree, and that all the other cats had followed in his wake; food and drink had been placed in plenty at the foot of the tree, but that the cats had been starving, frightened out of their senses, for three days, and despite all attempts to reach them they had only climbed higher and higher out of reach into the uppermost and most dangerous branches of the pine. The showman hastened with his guide across country to the township, only to find that in the interval one bright specimen of a man belonging to the village had suggested felling the tree, and so rescuing the cats from the pangs of absolute starvation, should they survive the ordeal. A dynamite cartridge had been used to blast the roots of the pine, and a rope attached to its trunk had done the rest and brought the monster tree to earth, only, however, at the expense of all the cats, for not one survived the tremendous fall and shaking. A sad and tearful procession followed the remains of the cats to their hastily dug grave, and thereafter a bull mastiff took the place of the cats in the township, an animal more in character with the lives of its inhabitants.

Analogous to this case of the travelling menageries, we have the great variety of blues, silvers, and whites which are characteristic of Russia. There is a vast tableland of many thousands of miles in extent, intersected by caravan routes to all the old countries {72}of the ancients, and it is not astonishing to hear of attempts being made to steal the wonderful cats of Persia, China, and Northern India, as well as those of the many dependent and independent tribes which bound the Russian kingdom. But it is a remarkable fact that none but the blues can live in the attenuated atmosphere of the higher mountainous districts through which they are taken before arriving in Russian territory. It is no uncommon thing to find a wonderful complexity of blue cats shading to silver and white in most Russian villages, or blue cats of remarkable beauty, but with a dash of tabby-marking running through their coats. Their life, too, is lived at the two extremes. In the short Russian summer they roam the woodlands, pestered by a hundred poisonous insects; in the winter they are imprisoned within the four walls of a snow-covered cottage, and are bound down prisoners to domesticity till the thaw sets in again. Many of the beautiful furs which come to us from Russia are really the skins of these cats, the preparation of which for market has grown into a large and thriving industry. The country about Kronstadt, in the Southern Carpathian Mountains of Austria, is famous for its finely developed animals; and here, too, has grown up a colony of sable-coloured cats, said to be of Turkish origin, where the pariahs take the place of cats.

The Tabby is remarkable to us in that it is characteristic of our own country, and no other colour seems to have been popular until our own times. If you ask any one which breed of cat is the real domestic cat, you will be told the tabby, probably because it is so well known to all. The complexity of the tabby is really remarkable, and {73}for shape and variety of colouring it has no equal in any other tribe of cat. It has comprised in its nature all the really great qualities of the feline, and all its worst attributes. You can truthfully say of one of its specimens that it attaches itself to the individual, while of another in the same litter you will get an element of wildness. A third of the same parents will sober down to the house, but take only a passing notice of people. You can teach it anything if it is tractable, make it follow like a dog, come to whistle, but it will have its independence.

The Sand-coloured Cat, with a whole-coloured coat like the rabbit, which we know as the Abyssinian or Bunny Cat, is a strong African type. On the Gold Coast it comes down from the inland country with its ears all bitten and torn away in its fights with rivals. It has been acclimatised in England, and Devonshire and Cornwall have both established a new and distinct tribe out of its parentage. The Manx Cat is nearly allied to it, and a hundred years ago the tailless cat was called the Cornwall Cat, not the Manx.

Siam sends us a regal animal in the Siamese Royal Cat; it has a brown face, legs, and tail, a cream-coloured body, and mauve or blue eyes. The Siamese take great care of their cats, for it is believed that the souls of the departed are transmitted into the bodies of animals, and the cat is a favourite of their creed; consequently the cats are highly cultivated and intelligent, and can think out ways and means to attain an end.

I have tried for years to trace the origin of the Long-haired or Persian Cats, but I cannot find that they were known to antiquity, and even the records of later times only mention the Short-haired. European literature does not give us an insight into the subject; and unless Chinese history holds some hidden lights in its records, we are thrown back upon the myths of Persia to account for the wonderful modern distribution of the long-haired cat, which is gradually breeding out into as many varieties as the short-haired, with this difference—that greater care and trouble are taken over the long-haired, and they will, as a breed, probably soon surpass the short-haired for intelligence and culture.

One variety is quite new and distinctive—the Smoke Long-haired, whose dark brown or black surface-coat, blown aside, shows an under-coat of blue and silver, with a light brown frill round its neck. All the other long-haired cats can pair with the short-haired for colouring and marking, but I have not yet seen a Bunny Long-haired.

THE FOSSA, CIVETS, AND ICHNEUMONS.

THE FOSSA.

In the Fossa Madagascar possesses an altogether peculiar animal. It is a very slender, active creature, with all its proportions much elongated. It is of a bright bay uniform colour, with thick fur, and has sharp retractile claws. It has been described as the natural connecting-link between the Civets and the Cats, anatomically speaking. Thus it has retractile claws, but does not walk on its toes, like cats, but on the soles of its feet (the hind pair of which is quite naked), like a civet. Very few have been brought to England; indeed, the first time that one was exhibited in our Zoological Gardens was only ten years ago. Formerly stories were told of its ferocity, which was compared to that of the tiger. These tales were naturally the subject of ridicule. The fossa usually attains a length of about 5 feet from snout to tail, and is the largest of the carnivora of Madagascar. A fine young specimen lately brought to London, and in the Zoological Gardens at the time of writing, is now probably full grown. It is about the same length and height as a large ocelot, but with a far longer tail, and is more slenderly built. The extreme activity of the fossa no doubt renders it a very formidable foe to other and weaker creatures. It has been described by a recent writer as being entirely nocturnal, and preying mainly on the lemurs and birds which haunt the forests of Madagascar. The animal kept at the Zoological Gardens has become fairly tame. It is fed mainly on chickens' heads and other refuse from poulterers' shops. Apparently it has no voice of any kind. It neither growls, roars, nor mews, though, when irritated or frightened, it gives a kind of hiss like a cat.

THE CIVETS AND GENETS.

The Civets are the first marked deviation from the Cat Family. Their bodies are elongated, their legs short, their claws only partially retractile. Some of them have glands holding a strong scent, much esteemed in old days in Europe, when "The Civet Cat" was a common inn-sign even in England. The civets are generally beautifully marked with black stripes and bands on grey. But none of them grow to any large size, and the family has never had the importance of those which contain the large carnivora, like the true cats or bears. Many of the tribe and its connections are domesticated. Some scholars have maintained that the cat of the ancient Greeks was one of them—the common genet. The fact is that both this and the domestic cat were kept by the ancients; and the genet is still used as a cat by the peasants of Greece and Southern Italy.

The African Civet and Indian Civet are large species. The former is common almost throughout Africa. Neither of them seems to climb trees, but they find abundance of food by catching small ground-dwelling animals and birds. They are good swimmers. The Indian civet has a handsome skin, of a beautiful grey ground-colour, with black collar and markings. It is from these civets that the civet-scent is obtained. They are kept in cages for this purpose, and the secretion is scooped from the glands with a wooden spoon. They produce three or four kittens in May or June. Several other species very little differing from these are known as the Malabar, Javan, and Burmese Civets.

The Rasse is smaller, has no erectile crest, and its geographical distribution extends from Africa to the Far East. It is commonly kept as a domestic pet. Like all the civets, it will eat fruit and vegetables.

The Genets, though resembling the civets, have no scent-pouch. They are African creatures, but are found in Italy, Spain, and Greece, and in Palestine, and even in the south of France. Beautifully spotted or striped, they are even longer and lower than the civet-cats, and steal through the grass like weasels.

The Common Genet is black and grey, the latter being the ground-colour. The tail is very long, the length being about 15 inches, while that of the body and head is only 19 inches. Small rodents, snakes, eggs, and birds are its principal food. It is kept in {76}Southern Europe for killing rats. Several other very similar forms are found in Africa. The presence of such a very Oriental-looking animal in Europe is something of a surprise, though many persons forget that our South European animals are very like those of Africa and the East. The porcupine, which is common in Italy and Spain, and the lynx and Barbary ape are instances. A tame genet kept by an acquaintance of the writer in Italy was absolutely domesticated like a tame mongoose. It had very pretty fur, grey, marbled and spotted with black, and no disagreeable odour, except a scent of musk. It was a most active little creature, full of curiosity, and always anxious to explore not only every room, but every cupboard and drawer in the house. Perhaps this was due to its keenness in hunting mice, a sport of which it never tired. It did not play with the mice when caught as a cat does, but ate them at once.

The Linsangs, an allied group, are met with in the East, from India to Borneo and Java. They are more slender than the genets, and more arboreal. Of the Nepalese Linsang Hodgson writes: "This animal is equally at home on trees and on the ground. It breeds and dwells in the hollows of decaying trees. It is not gregarious, and preys mainly on living animals." A tame female owned by him is stated to have been wonderfully docile and tractable, very sensitive to cold, and very fond of being petted. There is an allied West African species.