A LION'S INSTINCT.—A PLUCKY RESCUE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2032, 28 March 1881, Page 3

A LION'S INSTINCT.— A PLUCKY RESCUE.

A lion accident at Birmingham (eays the Daily Telegraph) by which on the 12th January one of the animal's keepers nearly lost his life, deserves Bonio notice. The keeper, it seems, had gone into the beast's cage to clean it, and having, as he supposed, seen all tho other occupants safely out, set to work. As it happened, however, the sliding door which divided off tho two compartments of the cage had not fallen securely into its place, and an old Jion called Wallace, seeing an opportunity for fresh meat, sprang at the opening. The door gave way, and the next inetant Wallace had seized his keeper. The man had a broom in his hand, but the lion cared little for that. A number of people, powerless of course to give assistance, were looking on, but fortunately there was also present a professional " lion tamer," belonging to the establishment, and this man, with great courage, rushed straight into tho cago and confronted tho lion. He had in his hand a pistol loaded ■with blank cartridge, which he Hashed in the brute's face without making anyimpreaßion upon it, and then commenced beating it upon the head with tho heavily loaded handle of the whip which he carried, At

• first tho blows were received only with '• roars, but at last a smashing ono betwomi the eyes seemed paitially to stun the lion, for it released its proy, aud the unfortunate keeper was at once dragged out. He lies in a damjt-rous state, but his life, so bravely saved by tho " lion tamer, is not despaired of. la a few minutes more the man wonld probably hare been dead, for the caruivora are, as a rule, careful to kill their prey outright before beginning to cac it, and in tho presont instance the lion had already deferred the fatal blow beyond the usual time. These beasts will play with their victims in tho same way that cats do, and both tho tiger and tho lion, if tho creaturo they have struck down lies perfectly motionless, will often remain licking any blood that is flowing, before settling down to serious oating. Being certain of a good meal to follow, they prefer, like many human beings, to indulge a luxurious senso of expectation as long as possible, and, at tho commencement of their repast trifle with their food. But any expression of restlessness in tho thing ho i3 about to eat is enough for tho beast, and, afraid perhaps of its escape, or only angry at its impotent attempU at resistance, ho gives tho one blow necessary to assure no further struggling. It ia easy enough, after such an incident as this at Birmingham, to talk of lions as " savago brute3," and then to moralise over tho men who havo grown accustomed to lions, and think that lions have therefore grown accustomed to them. Surely it is much more just to tho animals to remember that it is the most natural thing in tho world for a flesh-eating animal to spring at fresh meat when it sees tho dainty within its reach. Suppose we were to catch a healthy schoolboy and, having shut him up in a cage, then all day long roll plum puddings backwards and forwards in front of the bars. Would this be humane ? It is truo that every afternoon the captive would receive a slice of pudding, to keep him alive from day to day ; but as he could tako no exercise, he could never, for his own health's sake, be allowed to eat his 611. Every day, therefore, on a half-empty stomach, the wretched boy would have to sit in his cayo and watch tho plum-puddings rolling about just boyond his reach. After a while, of course, lie would give up all hopes of getting at them, and would blink at them from behind his bars as if he had quite forgotten that plum-pud-dings were eatable. But suppose one day that ho suddenly looked up and | saw under his very nose a whole round pudding — not a meagre slice such as he was accustomed to get of an afternoon, but a roal genuine plum pudding, in all the comfortable perfection of its rotundity, glistening with delightful condiments and fragrant as all the Spice Islands. "What should we expect the schoolboy to do ? Would it be fair to a3k him to point out the extraordinary occurrence to the keeper, and beg him to restore the pudding to its owner ! Wonld he growl at it as a nuisance, aud testily kick it out again through the bars ( Would ho turn his back upon it and pretend that he did not see it, or affect to misunderstand it3 character and play football with it ! He would be a very extraordinary boy indeed if he did, a supernatural and unnatural boy, a monstrous freak of nature — no boy at all. What, then, would he do! Why, "go for " the pudding, of course, with all his might, and proceed to eat it. He would fall upon tho plum-pudding ferociously, like a schoolboy stimulated by hunger, and, unless some .'one came in quickly and beat him off, the pudding would be in a very critical state indeed, and it would go hard with the cook that made it to recognise her own again. Yet surely no one would blamo the boy. If puddings are not meant to be eaten they should not be rolled under hungry boy3* noses. Now, if we read "keeper" for plum-pudding and "lion" for boy, we iind the two cases go strictly on all fours together. The lion when they caught him had never, it was true, had much experience in catching men, for he wa3 burn and bred in England. But, over and above the anthropophagous instinct which he had inherited from generations of lions accustomed to jump out of the African bush upon unsuspecting Hottentots, this particular lion of Birmingham happens to be the son of that very "Nero" ffhich, about eight years ago, killed the "lion tamer" McCarthy, of Bolton. Thus, both from generic instinct and from paternal example, " Wallace" was imbued with a sense of the propriety of eating men when he could. His opportunities did not frequently occur ; but when one presented itself he was not slow to remember the ancestral precedent and copy his father.