The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-16
LIONS AND THEIR PETS.
Fearlessness of Pigeons Among the
King of Beasts.
From the New York Tribune.

King OF beasts.
From the New York Tribune.
The way lions treat the tiny creatures
of animal life is study 1t may be said
that there is some animal language, and
that the legend of the little mouse which
saved the lions life by guawing the net
has become known to the denizens of the
jungles and handed down as animal folk
| lore, or IL may be that the king of beasts
| has positive contempt for anything ex-
tremely small but il is nevertheless a
| fact that lions will not attack tiny ami
mails when they are put together Prof
| Edward Darling, now playing at Hagen
| beck S, than whom there is no more pro-
| found student of lions life and charac-
| ter in the country, has made many curl
Gus experiments with his five big beasts
~ never saw lion kill a rat or
mouse. said Prof. Darling and I have
had many of them put in the cage with
my five lions. My attention was first
from London to Batavia, in Java, on the
ship Rotundo. had my five lions with
me- and III the quarter of the ship in
which they were housed were many rats
One day | saw Leo, my favorite lion, living
down and holding between his paws very
loosely a monster ship rat l thought,
perhaps, that the cat instinct in the lion
probably play with it while then eat it,
and so / watched. Imagine, however, my
surprise when | saw him loosen the rat,
and the rat make no attempt to get away
but run up and over his gigantic paws and
play with him.
1--WE were a long time making a trip,
and every day this ships rat went into
Leo's cage, and the two played together
as gently as two little children. / made
n
hoping that perhaps might take it ashore
with me, but | could not succeed, and |
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 lions 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 subse-
quent to this where Lee had pet rat
which makes me believe that the lion has
real fOndness for the rodent. 1t was in
1881 in Calcutta. We were playing at
the MADAM, one those gigantic places in
far India, and when | went in to see my
pets one morning, l saw that Leo had
found another rat for pet. My five
lions were all together, but this rat would
play only Leo. There were many other
rats in the place, but the other lions
would not look at them. 1t seems to me
to be fact that the lions consider these
little animals too small TO be touched
have known of rats being found dead in
lions cage, but l believe that they were
simply killed by the lion rolling on them
or stopping on them through carelessness,
but lions never eat them.
In Hamburg once I knew a case of
sick tiger to whom it was deemed neces-
sary to give some fresh, warm blood to
tone up his system, and to further this
end live rabbit was put in the cage
with theitiger. One would naturally sup
pose that the tiger would have killed it
instantly, but such, however was not the
case The tiger played with the rabbit
for days before he would touch it, He
finally killed and ate it.
Nov, my theory is this A lion or
tiger, or, in fact, any wild animal kept
alone grows very lonesome. In their nat
ural 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
that is put in the same cage with them,
they refrain from killing it so IS to have
It's cOmpanionship. We have heard of
many instances of men, being alone, ship
wrecked, if you like, making strange
friends. Why not a lion3 1t always
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 is another peculiar thing
about lions, - added Prof. Darling, "and
that is that they will not eat the flesh of
fowl You might tempt them with a
canvasback duck of the daintiesU SQUAD.
but they would refuse it. This is a scien-
titic fact. have tried it many times |
remem Der once having swan which had
broken his 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. ! have repeatedly put
pigeons alive into the cage, Just TO see
what they would do | have thrown
grain down among the lions, and the
pigeons have actually got down and hop
ped around the big brutes. even hopping
on their backs, the lions making no at
tempt to disturb them, even seeming to
enjoy their companiOnship
Now, there is something strange about
this which is rather difficult to explain.
To my mind, it argues that a lion is not
brutal in his instincts. Savage, he I'M
dOubtedly is. Fierce at all times, but
fierce with justice I believe every one of
my lions has a conscience. / know every
one of them knows the difference between
right and wrong, they know their won
drous power, and are charitable. They
would never attempt to inJure something
which in no way could do them harm
The study of a lion, his habits, character
and capabilities, is one of the most an
teresting know. 1t offers a field as yet
unknown, but the more one
goes into it, the more time one takes to
find out just what lion is, the more he Is
convinced that he has rightly been named
the king Of beasts"
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