10 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX 



to put it as mildly as possible. With no recent information to iio 

 upon I cannot give an approximate estimate oven, of the number of 

 lions in the Gir at the present day, but it may be taken for granted 

 that if the Gir is allowed to be cut down in the future as it has been 

 in the past, the day is not far dista.nt when the Indian lion will have 

 become extinct. Fortunately the loss of the forest would mean far 

 more not only to Junagadh itself but also to the whole of Kathiawar, 

 than the loss ot the lions, so let us hope that they will be spared for 

 many a long day yet. Of course, the lions do a fearful amount of 

 damage among the cattle, but this might be remedied to a great 

 extent by properly preserving the game animals which are their 

 natural food. These are, it is true, nominally preserved now but as a 

 matter of fact the forest guards and police, who are supposed to be the 

 gamekeepers, have an understanding amongst themselves that 

 the eame laws are intended for others and not for themselves. For 

 the better preservation of the lions the sooner the wholesale and in- 

 discriminate slaughter on the part of these subordinate officials is 

 stopped the better. I have often wondered why the Darbar does not 

 close some 600 square miles of the Gir not only as a reserved 

 forest on the lines obtaining in British India, but to serve also as a 

 sanctuary for the lions and all descriptions of wild game. It is 

 worth the trial and there are several localities well adapted for the 

 purpose, notably the country including the Nesses of Sirwan, Khokra, 

 Chelna, Moduka and Jamwadla. 



It is curious that the old idea, that the Indian lion is a maneless 

 one, still prevails amongst a host of people not excepting sportsmen 

 who have never had an opportunity of seeing the animal. Any one 

 who has taken the slightest interest in the subject is of course well 

 aware that such is not the case. It is true that in a wild state the 

 Gir lion does not carry as heavy a mane as the African, but this 

 comes of the former's home being in a thorny jungle where its mane 

 is bound to suffer, whereas the latter is more or less a dweller of the 

 plains. In captivity there is not much to choose between the two in 

 this respect, although I have noticed that in the Indian animal the 

 mane does not extend so far under the body as it does in the African. 

 It has also been stated that the Indian lion is a much smaller beast 

 than its African brother. To decide this question we can only refer to 

 the measurements taken and recorded by sportsmen, and unfortunately 



