The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1894-03-14
THE KING HAS PETS.
THIS REFERS TO THE LION AND LIT
TIE ANIMALS HE LOVES.

A Professional Trainer Of wild Animals
Tells Some Interesting Incidents - The
Fcari.ssncss of Pigeons Among the Kings
of Beas,s.
The way liens treat the tiny creatures
Of animal life Is u study. II may be that
there IL some animal language, and that
the legend of the little mouse which saw
ed the lions life by gnawing the net has
become known TO the deniZens of the
Jungle and handed down MS animal folk
lore, or IL may be that the king of beasts
las positive contempt for anything ex-
tremely small, but it is nevertheless n
fact that lions will not attack tiny ami
mails when they are put together. Pro-
fessor Edward Darling than whom there
is no more profound student of n lions
life and character in the country, has
made many curious experiments with
his five big beasts.
al never saw lion kill rat or q
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 | was on my
way from London to Batavia, in Java,
on the ship Rotundo. had my five lions
with me, and in 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 monster ship rat.
l thought perhaps that the cat instinct
in the lion had made him catch it and
that he would probably play with il
awhile, then eat It, and so | watched. I'm
agine, however, my surprise when 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.
eve were long time making n trim.
and every day this ship's rat went into
Leo's cage. and the two played together
as gently as two little children. made
several attempts To CAPTURE the rat. hon.
ing that perhaps might take Il ashore
with me. Int I could not succeed. and I
promise YOU that old Leo did not like Mt
All NV attemptinp to interfere with his
net. When we got to Java. we had to
take the lion ont. and Leo had 70 lose his
net. He could have killed that rat n
Thousand times Int be never did IT,
"There was another instance subse.
ouent TO this where Leo had net rat,
which makes me believe that the lion has
a real fondness for the rodent. Il was
in 1881 in Calcutta. We were playing at
the Madam. one of those gigantic places
in far India. and when I went in TO see
my pets one morning | saw that Leo had
found another rat for pet NV 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. 1t seems
to me TO be fact that the lions consider
these little animals too small to be touch
ed. | have known Of rats being found
dead in lions cage, but believe that
they were simply killed by the lion roll.
ing on them or stepping on them through
carelessness, but lions never eat them.
''In Hamburg once knew case of a
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 the tiger. One would naturally
suppose that the tiger would have killed
il instantly, but such, however, was not
the case. The tiger played with the rab-
bit for days before he would touch it
He finally killed and ate it.