other inventions, can in some cases be
saved from some animals only by other animals--from tigers by elephants
and buffaloes, as I have described to you.

CHAPTER X

The Lion

I shall now tell you about other felines or animals of the Cat Tribe.
The _lion_ looks the grandest of all such animals--I suppose just
because he has a _mane_.

Most lions live in Africa. There are some lions in Arabia and Persia,
which are the two countries in Asia nearest to Africa. A few lions are
also found in a jungle on the west side of India. These lions in the
countries of Asia are not as big as the African lion.

Then there is also a species of lion in America, though he has no mane.
He is called the _puma_; but people in the Western states often call him
a _cougar_ or mountain lion.

The puma is found chiefly in North America; he is also found in Central
and South America, but not so often.

In the United States the puma lives mostly in the mountains of the Far
West. He is very fond of deer flesh; and as there are still plenty of
deer in the forest reserves in the Far West, the puma has managed to
survive there. But in the Middle West, where there are fewer deer, there
are hardly any pumas.

[Illustration: Group of Lions]

[Illustration: Puma]

The puma is seldom able to attack cattle. But when pressed by hunger in
the winter, he sometimes descends from the mountains to the plains
below, and tries at least to steal sheep from the farms.

The puma usually avoids men, especially as the men there often carry
guns. But still, when made desperate by hunger, the puma has even been
known to attack a man on a lonely farm.

In size this American lion, like the lions that live in Asia, is much
smaller than the African lion. The African lion is the finest specimen
of a lion. So I shall describe the African lion in particular.

The African lion grows to be about three feet six inches high at the
shoulders; but his big head stands up quite a foot higher, and makes him
look very imposing. His body, without the tail, is about five and a half
to six feet long. So the African lion is not quite so long as the Bengal
tiger. Still, the lion is a splendid specimen of the Cat Tribe.

"But why is the lion a member of the Cat Tribe at all?" you may ask.
"The lion does not _look_ like a cat. The tiger does look like a cat,
though much bigger than an ordinary cat."

That is quite true. But still the lion is a true cat. Why?

_The L