12 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



A comparison of the skull measurements is interesting. Those of 

 my 9-5" lion are as follows : — 



Total length between uprights ... 13*4 inches. 



Width across the zygomatic arches ... ^-Q ,, 

 Height resting on table ... ... 6'2 ,, 



In Mr. Bowland Ward's Records of Measurements, those of over 30 

 lions run much higher than the above — the laroest measuring no less 

 than 16'5" in length. But these, of course, belong to picked heads 

 from all parts of Africa, and they certainly do not shake my belief 

 that taking the average there is no difference in point of size between 

 the two animals. A lion, which was presented to the London 

 Zoological Gardens by the late Colonel Humfrey, was as fine a 

 specimen as any of the African lions in the adjoining cages, and the 

 lion confined in the Sardar Bagh at Junagadh will compare 

 favourably in the same direction with any African specimens in 

 confinement in any part of the world. 



My 9-5" lion's skull measurements compare as follows with those 

 of a very heavy old 9'-8" tiger I shot in North Kanara. 



Shull Measvrements, 

 Length. Length. Breadth. Height. 



Tiger 9'-8" 13-7 ins. 9*3 ins. 6-3 ins. 



Lion 9'-5" 13-4 „ S'6 „ 6-2 „ 



The principal difference is apparent in the breadth, the tigers' being 

 consequently the much heavier looking skull. 



The chief difference between the skulls of the two animals lies in 

 the nasal bones, the posterior terminations of which, in the lion, are 

 opposite the terminations of the maxillary bones, whereas in a tiger, 

 they extend beyond them. The lower part of a lion's underjaw is 

 also convex and does not sit flat on a table like a tiger's does. 



In a description given of the Indian lion by the great authority, 

 Lydekker, in his book on the Great and Small Game of India, Burma 

 and Tibet, he considers it possible that a claim to racial distinction 

 between the Indian and African animals may be drawn from the 

 colour of the mane. He states that he himself has never heard of the 

 occurrence of a black maned lion from the former country and further 

 mentions that it is definitely recorded by a Colonel Percy in the 

 Badminton Library, that black maned lions are absolutely unknoion in 

 India. I cannot, of course, say what grounds Colonel Percy had for 



