Men have known lions longer than they have bears. They have lived right next door to lions for thousands of years, but they never called a lion "brother." They never felt as friendly as that toward this fierce, proud beast He has always been King of the dry plains of Africa and the hot jungle of India. In the menagerie and zoo he keeps everyone at a distance, and seems to feel very much above all the other animals, and even men. If he could understand that he has a cousin so small, so tame, and so playful that little children make a pet of him, he might just roar with rage and shame.

The lion is only a very big wild cat. Your pet kitten is like him in more ways than you imagine. In fact, pussy is a live and lively book on lions. Live books are better than printed ones, and much more interesting. Pussy walks and runs and crouches and springs exactly as a lion does. She watches a mouse hole and springs on her prey as a lion does, too. Turn her on her back and look at her paws. There are five toes on her front paws, one of them a sort of thumb, but only four toes on her hind paws. Did you know that? On each toe is a little curved toe-nail, as sharp as a little sickle. Pussy keeps her claws inside her pretty, soft fur mittens most of the time. But she can push them out as quick as a wink, pull them back again and scratch exactly like a lion. Under the toes and the balls of the feet are soft, naked cushions, so pussy makes no sound when she walks. All the wild cats—the lions, tigers and leopards, the jaguars, panthers and lynxes have feet just like the house cat's.

Now look at pussy's head. She has upright, outward-turning ears. She must hear well because she hunts at night. On each side of her mouth are long stiff hairs. These are feelers to keep her from putting her head into a smaller hole than her body can go through. Her eyes arc the strangest of all. There are windows, or pupils, in them, for letting the light in, as there are in your eyes. In the dark these windows are big and round, so they shine like little yellow moons. But in the daytime, or in a lamp-lighted room, those pupils close to a narrow, up-and-down slit to keep the light out. Pussy can see in the dark so well because she can open her eye-windows so wide. Some of the lesser wild cats shut the pupils of their eyes to slits, but the lion, tiger and leopard draw their pupils up into little round holes. In that one thing the lion is more like boys and girls than pet kittens.

Put your finger in pussy s mouth. What sharp teeth she has. They pierce like the points of carpet tacks. When she licks your hand her tongue feels like a file. A lion's teeth are like daggers, and his tongue is so rough he can scrape bones clean with it. Lions lap water with their tongues, too. Pussy doesn't like to get her feet wet, and lions just hate water, except to drink. That is queer, for many of the wild cats love water. The tigers of India swim across small arms of the sea. They haunt river banks and swamps, wade in up to their necks to drink, wallow in the mud, then wash off and roll in the sand. This love of water gets them into trouble with crocodiles. The jaguar, or South American tiger, likes turtles and catches them by swimming.

All the wild cats wash their faces with their paws. Perhaps you have wondered why your big cat likes to go to a quiet, shady place and sleep a good deal in the daytime, and then prowl about and make dreadful noises at night. She learned that habit thousands of years ago when all cats were wild, and she never quite gets over it, no matter how tame she seems. She will try to hide her babies, too. On farms, where there are fine hiding places, mother cats will make a den under the barn floor, in the haymow, or in a hollow log up in the woods. If you try to follow her to find her kittens she will mislead you in the cleverest way. The mother lion carries her kittens by taking the loose skin at the back of the neck between her teeth, just as the house cat does.

The lion makes his den in a rocky cave hidden by bushes, on the edge of a wide sandy plain where many antelopes, deer, zebra and other grazing animals roam. In one thing he is better than the house cat. When he is about three or four years old, and has a short, fine silky mane, of which he is as proud as big brother is of his downy mustache, the lion picks out a mate to go to housekeeping. These two stay together just as human papas and mamas do, all their lives, and they sometimes live to be fifty years of age. When they find a house that suits them they don't like to move. You know tame cats like places better than they do people, and often refuse to go with the most loving little mistress to a new home.

A Group Of Lions.

Royal Bengal Tiger.

Leopard.