Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:   
      
   >>>  Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path;   
      
   ak>  Is Bagheera a male animal, or it can be a female one? I know   
   ak>  that in English many animals are generally spoken of with   
   ak>  "he" as their pronoun.   
      
      
              Until the late 20th century, "he" was a standard default position   
   in formal English when the gender of some individual person or animal could   
   not be easily determined.  Anybody who could describe Bagheera as well as   
   Kipling does here, however, would almost certainly be aware of this animal's   
   gender....  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)