Page:Babyhood of Wild Beasts.djvu/219

 CHAPTER XIX

O you know that baby lions are spotted with black spots and resemble leopards more than they do lions? They also have black stripes on their backs very much like tigers. The spots and stripes prove to us how closely the lion is related to the leopard and the tiger, who are also members of the big cat family.

Lions are born in the late spring or early summer. They are born blind, like kittens. There are from two to four in a litter. And on a single occasion that I know of, there were six in the family, the largest number I have ever known. The eyes open on the second or third day and are of a beautiful soft brown colour, for all the world like a collie puppy's.

They have overgrown, clumsy paws, with sharp claws hidden in their velvety sheaths. The ears are many sizes too big for the little roly-poly