Engravings of Lions, Tigers, Panthers and Leopards

No. XVII

Repeated instances of Friendships between the Lion and the Dog, have occurred at the Menagerie at the Tower, as well as elsewhere in England: and we have pleasure in adding a corroborating fact of a novel character. Mr. Edwin Landseer made it the subject of a Drawing from Nature, and we here present the public with an Engraving after it, executed by his brother, and numbered in our collection, 16.

A female whelp was accidentally found, quite young, and even before its eye-lids were unclosed, in an African forest not far from the sea shore. It was brought on board ship by some sailors, where a smallish black bitch, by birth quite an ignoble cur, having recently pupped, the experiment was successfully made, of ascertaining whether she would suckle the young Lioness, who was christened Charlotte.—Charlotte soon began to thrive, and to play kitten frolics; and continued to be thus nurtured, till, at no great length of time, she became so much larger than her foster-parent, and required so much food, as to induce the necessity of weaning her.

But the two quadrupeds continued, ever after, to live together on the most friendly and affectionate terms; constantly inhabiting the same cage, and habitually partaking of the same messes of provision. The Lioness, though now grown large, having never seen any other mother, continued through life to shew marks of daughterly obedience, and the bitch, of maternal regard. Mr. Edwin Landseer, as well as many others, has frequently seen them caressing each other in their cage at the Exeter ’Change Menagerie, in the manner which he has represented: the Drawing, which exhibits portraits both of the Lioness and Bitch, having been done some years ago.

And these kitten frolics, or the youthful disposition to indulge in them, continued on the part of the Lioness, till her older and graver nurse became tired of the lion-play, and would sometimes snarl and bark forbiddingly. It was very entertaining, and an interesting chapter in Natural History, to behold this; for the Bitch ever retained an ascendancy, and much of the authority, of a parent: so that her foster-daughter, though so much larger, and so tremendously powerful, would retire obediently to the farther corner of the cage, waiting a favourable change of temper, on the part of her senior, before she renewed her playful familiarities.

On a principle of prudence, however, and because it was judged that if these inmates of the same refectory, ever quarrelled, it would be at a meal-time, they were of late separately fed: that is to say, not at separate times, or tables, but, at opposite corners of the apartment: but the Bitch has often been known to help herself out of Charlotte’s portion, without fear or ceremony, and her majesty to shew no resentment, nor any kind of royal displeasure or hurt feeling, at the indecorum.

We esteem this Engraving to afford a fair example of the positive, or negative, power of the sovereign of the forest, of physiognomically expressing the gentler emotions. But it occurs to us here—and we mention it in reference to an argument maintained in an earlier part of this dissertation—that perhaps licking with the tongue may belong to the dumb language of quadrupedal expression of affection. But the Dog, and the Cat, kind, express themselves in this way; and amongst each other, it cannot be misunderstood—the affectionate idea being impressed at the period of their very earliest susceptibilities, and associated—perhaps as indissolubly as the human endearments of smiles and kissing—with their youngest, purest, and most permanent recollections.