164 BULLETIN 99, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



German East Africa: Western edge Serengeti Plains, near head 

 of the Mbalageti River, 4 skulls (Elton Clark, Lindsay). 



The Uganda lion, whose range extends along the shores of Victoria 

 Nyanza and eastward to the Southern Guaso Nyiro River in British 

 East Africa, is a darker, richer colored, and longer haired animal than 

 the lion of the Kapiti Plains and Kilimanjaro regions. The type 

 skin of nyanzse has been considerably darkened by stain, apparently 

 from red soil and also from some native tanning process. This has 

 reddened all the lighter parts on the face, head, and Hmbs. The skin 

 was presented to Colonel Roosevelt by the European residents at 

 Kampala and has not been re-dressed by museum taxidermists or 

 tanners. The Sotik lion skins are all of the same dark race, and 

 allowmg for the imdoubted darkening of some of the lighter parts on 

 the type, are almost precisely of the same shade of color. 



A maned male of this form, killed by Kermit Roosevelt in the 

 Sotik, weighed 412 pounds. Another large male, also maned, shot 

 by Colonel Roosevelt in the same region, weighed 410 pounds. Both 

 of these animals were thin. All of the adult males of this form in 

 the collection are "yellow-maned," with little trace of black in the 

 longer hairs of the head and neck. The young of Felis leo nyanzse, 

 are even more spotted on the underparts, legs, and feet than are the 

 young of F. I. massaica. There is the same great variation in size of 

 skull and teeth in the lioness as in massaica. 



For measurements see tables, pages 166-169. 



FELIS LEO SOMALIENSIS Noack. 



1891. [Felis leo] var. somaliensis Noack, Jahrb. Hamburgischen Wiss. Anat., vol. 

 9, 1st half, p. 120. ("Somaliland.") 



specimen. — One, as follows: 



' ' Somaliland " (Gross) . 



This race of the lion was described from a pair of animals living 

 in the Berlin Zoological Gardens. The exact history of the speci- 

 mens is somewhat in doubt, and according to Heller* the animals 

 have since been traded to other zoological parks, and all trace of 

 them has been lost. Our specimen is an animal which died in the 

 National Zoological Park in Washington, and it exhibits all the usual 

 characteristics of color and skull foimd in lions reared in captivity. 

 For this reason it is valueless for systematic purposes. 



Alioness from Somaliland nowUving in the National Zoological Park 

 is distinctly smaller than the average lioness from British East Africa. 

 The subspecies seems to be well marked and it is greatly to be hoped 

 that wild-killed specimens may before long reach the Museum. 



1 Roosevelt and Heller, Life-Hist. Afr. Game ^Vnim., vol. 1, p. 224. 1911. 



