for instance, Aristotle is thought to have shown sound information, probably derived from the reports of the professional divers. But his statements about bees, though obtained, as he tells us, from bee-keepers, and though “made beautiful for ever” in the charming verses of Virgil’s fourth Georgic, have been quite overturned by the microscopic discoveries of Reaumur, Hunter, Huber, Keys, Vicat, and Dunbar. On one cardinal point the ancients were all wrong: they did not understand the sex and the functions of either the queen-bee, the worker, or the drone.
The following account of the lion is considered to be fairly correct (‘An.,’ IX. xliv.): “When feeding, the lion is extremely savage; but when he is not hungry and is full fed, he is quite gentle. He is not either jealous or suspicious. He is playful and affectionate towards those animals which have been brought up with him, and to which he is accustomed. When hunted, so long as he is in view he never flies or cowers; and if compelled to give way by the number of his hunters, he retreats leisurely, at a walk, turning himself round at short intervals. But if he reaches a covert he flies rapidly, until he is in the open again, and then he again retreats at a walk. If compelled to fly when on the open plains, he runs at full stretch, but does not leap. His manner of running is continuous, like that of a dog at full stretch; when pursuing his prey, however, he throws himself upon it when he comes within reach. It is true what they say about the lion being very much afraid of fire (as Homer wrote, ‘the blazing fagots, that his courage daunt’), and about his watching and singling out for attack
