A lion's Love for a Black Tigress.
--The Philadelphia North American records the following singular case:
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"In one compartment of the cage in which the animals perform at
Van Amburgh's beautiful menagerie, in Chestnut street, is a huge tawny Asiatic lion.
His room-mate is a black female tiger.
The tiger is small, compared to the regal lion, but is highly valued as a zoo logical curiosity, and the only specimen of the black tiger in this country.
She was purchased by
Mr. Van Amburgh some two years ago, and has lived with the lion ever since.--The attachment between the two is something remarkable.
When other animals are in the same cage, and any affront is offered to the little tiger, she runs under the belly of the lion, and woe be to the animal that dares approach her. No matter how hungry he may be, the lion never touches his share of their daily meat until his little chum has selected her share, and even this he never entirely consumes until certain that she has enough.
All the animals are as fat as moles, but this black tiger is aldermanic in her proportions, and no remedy exists for the matter.
She has been twice removed from the lion, but until she was returned the generous beast would take neither food nor rest, while the frantic manner in which he dashed at the bars was a sufficient warning that the further detention of the tiger would be a dangerous matter.
Should his mate die, the lion would probably pine to death.
Once when she was taken a way a lioness was substituted.
The lion instantly fell upon her, and at a single bite broke her spine, and crushed some of her ribs.
Careful nursing saved her life, and she is still living, but with her hinder parts immovably paralyzed."
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