472 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



species of lion, though the varieties in the colour and length of mane 

 lead some people to an opposite conclusion. The Somali lion has 

 one peculiarity that I have not observed noticed, and that is that both 

 lions and lionesses are spotted with pale brown spots along the 

 lower part of sides and belly, and on the legs. These spots are most 

 conspicuous if the animal is young, but they are well marked on 

 the old lioness, and though much fainter are discernible on the 

 old lion. A photograph brings them out with great distinctness. 

 Now if you look at the lions in the Zoological Gardens there is no 

 sign of these spots as far as I remember. I have a photograph here 

 of a 9 ft. 1 in. lion with a fine mane which brings out the spots very 

 clearly. The tips of the ears of some are black, in others there is a 

 black bar across the middle of the ear, the tip being yellow. Sir 

 Samuel Baker told me that the lion has a horn £ of an inch long at 

 the end of the tail, but as I did not know it, I did not look for it or 

 notice it. The black tuft at the end of the tail in old ones has 

 numerous white hairs in it, making it an iron grey. This the Somalis 

 told me was a sign of age. 



Lions are much noisier than tigers ; they seldom roar, but as they 



walk about at night keep up a constant singing kind of noise which 



is difficult to describe. It can be heard for a long distance. It is 



curious that they should do so, as one would think they would, when 



on the prowl, not warn animals of their approach. I have, however, 



heard them night after night for hours speaking as they went 



along. Some nights they don't talk at all, although their tracks show 



they are still about. Lion shooting is a very fascinating pursuit if 



conducted in the proper manner, which is to track the animal till 



you come up to where he is lying. Another mode not without its 



attractions, but not to be compared to the former, and one I only adopted 



in the hills where tracking is impossible, is to sit up at night over 



a kill. The first method yields the best of sport, as at the end of 



the track, which may last for several hours, your eyes suddenly fall 



on a lion sitting in the dense gloom of a bush within a few feet of 



you, when you can make sure of him, or, sometimes, the track leads 



into a thicket of thorns that you cannot penetrate into, when th e 



best plan is to set fire to it and stand at the other end. I only 



once found one sitting in the open ; it was a lioness with a well- 



