OCR Text |
Show THE KING HAS PETS. THIS REFERS TO THE LION AND LITTLE LIT-TLE ANIMALS HE LOVES. A Professional Trainer of "W;ld Animals Tells Soma Interesting Incidents The Fearlessness of Pigeons Among the Kings of Beasts. The way lions treat the tiny creatures of animal life is a study. It may be that there is some animal language, and that the legend of the little mouse which saved sav-ed the lion's life by gnawing the net has become known to the denizens of the jungle and handed down as animal folklore, folk-lore, or it may be that the king of beasts has a positive contempt for anything extremely ex-tremely small, but it is nevertheless a fact that lions will not attack tiny animals ani-mals when they are put together. Professor Pro-fessor Edward Darling, than whom there is no more profound student of a lion's life and character in the country, has made many curious experiments with his five big beasts. "I never Baw a lion kill a rat or 0 mouse," said Professor Darling, "and I have had many of them put in the cage with my five lions. My attention was first drawn to this when I was on my way from London to Batavia, in Java, on the ship Rotundo. I had my five lions with me, and in the quarter of the ship In which they were housed were many rats. One day I saw Leo, my favorite lion, lying down and holding between his paws very loosely a monster ship rat. I thought perhaps that the cat instinct in the lion had made him catch it and that he would probably play with it awhile, then eat it, and so I watched. Imagine, Im-agine, however, my surprise when I saw him loosen the rat, and the rat made no attempt to get away, but ran up and over his gigantic paws and played with him. "We were a long time making a trip, and every day this ship's rat went into Leo's cage, and the two playl together as gently as two litila childre I maii several attempts to capture the rat, hoping hop-ing that perhaps I might take it ashore with me, but I could not succeed, and I promise you that old Leo did not like at all my attempting to interfere with his pet. When we got to Java, we had to take the lion out, and Leo had to lose his pet. He could have killed that rat a thousand times, but he never did it. "There was another instance subsequent subse-quent to this where Leo had a pet rat, which makes me believe that the lion has a real fondness for the rodent. It was in 1881 in Calcutta. We were playing at the Maidan, one of those gigantic places in far India, and when I went in to 6ee my pets one morning I saw that Leo had found another rat for a pet. My five lions were all together, but this rat would play only with Leo. There were many other rats in the place, but the other lions would not look at them. It seems to me to be a fact that the lions consider these little animals too small to be touched. touch-ed. I have known of rats being found dead in a lion's cage, but I believe that they were simply killed by the. lion rolling roll-ing on them or stepping on them through carelessness, but lions never eat them. "In Hamburg once I knew a case of a sick tiger to whom it was deemed necessary neces-sary to give some fresh, warm blood to tone up bis system, and to further this end a live rabbit was put in the cage with the tiger. One would naturally suppose that the tiger would have killed it instantly, but such, however, was not the case. The tiger played with the rabbit rab-bit for days before he would touch it. He finally killed and ate it. "Now, my theory is this: A lion, or a tiger, or in fact any wild animal kept alone, grows very lonesome. In their natural state wild beasts always run in pairs. They love companionship, and when put alone they become so lonesome that when another animal, even though it is a rabbit, is put in the same cage with them, they refrain from killing it so as to have its companionship. We have heard of many instances of men being alone shipwrecked, if you like making strange friends. Why not a lion? It always al-ways made me feel rather bad to think of this tiger in Hamburg killing his little friend. Still even men at times turn on their friends. "Now, there fs another peculiar thing about lions," added Professor Darling, "and that is that they will not eat the flesh of a fowl. You might tempt them with a canvasback duck or the daintiest squab, but they would refuse It. This is a scientific fact. I have tried it many times. I remember once havimr a ewan wmcn naa Droken its wing. We killed it, dressed it carefully and threw it into the cage of the lions, but they would not touch it, and it finally had to be taken out and thrown away. I have repeatedly repeated-ly put pigeons alive into the cage, just to see what they would do. I have thrown grain down among the lions, and the pigeons have actually got down and hopped around the big brutes, even hopping hop-ping on their backs, the lions making no attempt to disturb them, even seeming to enjoy their companionship. "Now, there is something strange about this which is rather difficult to explain. ex-plain. To my mind it argues that a lion is not brutal in his instincts. Savage he undoubtedly is. Fierce at all times, but I fierce with justice. I believe every one of my lions has a conscience. I know every one of them knows the difference between right and wrong. They know their wondrous power and are charitable. charita-ble. They would never attempt to injure in-jure something which in no way could do them harm. The study of a lion his habits, character and capabilities is one of the most interesting I know. It offers a field as yet comparatively unknown, but the more one goes into it the more time one takes to find out just what a lion is and the more he is convinced that he has rightly been named the king of beasts." New York Tribune. |