504 CARNIVORA 



are all specifically distinct, no common structural character has been 

 pointed out by which the former can be separated from the latter. 

 On the contrary, most of the minor groups into which the genus 

 has been divided have representatives in both hemispheres. 



Notwithstanding the considerable diversity in external appear- 

 ance and size between different members of this extensive genus, 

 the structural differences are but slight, and so variously combined 

 in different species that the numerous attempts hitherto made to 

 subdivide it are all unsatisfactory and artificial. The principal 

 differences are to be found in the form of the cranium, especially 

 of the nasal and adjoining bones, the completeness of the bony orbit 

 posteriorly, the development of the first upper premolar and of the 

 inner tubercle of the upper carnassial, the length of the tail, the form 

 of the pupil, and the condition and coloration of the fur, especially 

 the presence or absence of tufts or pencils of hair on the external 

 ears. Writing in 1881 Professor Mivart 1 gave the number of 

 existing species of Felis as 48, but by Mr. Blanford's reduction of 

 the number of Indian species 2 the list may now be diminished to 

 some 41. The following account is chiefly devoted to some of the 

 more important and better known species. 



A. Old World Species.— The Lion (F. leo, Fig. 224) has been 

 well known to man from the earliest historic times. Its geographi- 

 cal habitat made it familiar to all the races among whom human 

 civilisation took its origin, and its strongly marked physical and 

 moral characteristics have rendered it proverbial, perhaps to an 

 exaggerated degree, and have in all ages afforded favourite types 

 for poetry, art, and heraldry. The literature of the ancient Hebrews 

 abounds in allusions to the Lion ; and the almost incredible numbers 

 that are stated to have been provided for exhibition and destruction 

 in the Roman amphitheatres (as many as six hundred on a single 

 occasion by Pompey, for example) show how abundant these 

 animals must have been within accessible distance of the capital of 

 the world. 



The geographical range of the Lion was once far more extensive 

 than at present, even within the historic period covering the whole 

 of Africa, the south of Asia, including Syria, Arabia, Asia Minor, 

 Persia, and the greater part of Northern and Central India, and also 

 the south-eastern portion of Europe, as shown by the well-known 

 story told by Herodotus of the attacks by Lions on the Camels which 

 carried the baggage of the army of Xerxes on its march through 

 the country of the Pseonians in Macedonia. The very circum- 

 stantial account of that historian shows that the animal in his time 

 ranged through the country south of the Balkans, through Rou- 

 mania to the west of the River Carasu, and through Thessaly as far 



1 The Cat, pp. 392-426 (1881). 

 '-' Fauna of British India, ".Mammalia," pp. 56-90 (1888). 



