THE LION— KING OF BEASTS 



coarse hair. Much has been said and written about the 

 reason for this kind of " horn " on the hon's tail, and some 

 have thought that it served as a goad, with which the Hon 

 provokes itself to fury, when it lashes its flanks with the 

 tail, as it often does when angry. With the exception 

 of the smaller or larger mane of the male, the hair of 

 both lion and lioness is very short and close. Its color 

 varies from light yellowish brown or tawny to dark brown, 

 turning, in the manes of some old males, into an almost 

 perfect black. The skins of young cubs are almost in- 

 variably plainly spotted, which is often the case in full- 

 grown young lionesses. The manes begin to make their 

 appearance first during the third year, and a lion's age is 

 estimated anywhere from thirty to fifty years. 



Lions vary a great deal in size and weight. Measured, 

 as a rule, from the tip of the nose to the very end of the 

 tail, Indian lions have been found as long as eight feet 

 ten inches, whereas the famous lion and elephant hunter, 

 Mr. F. C. Selous, gives records of specimens of lions he 

 had shot in South Africa which measured respectively ten 

 feet six inches, ten feet nine inches, and eleven feet one 

 inch. The largest lion I have ever shot measured ten 

 feet two inches from the tip of the nose to the end of the 

 tail, the tape line being laid along the curve of the body 

 before skinning. The height at the shoulders of full-grown 

 specimens also varies from three feet to three feet six 

 inches, and I have heard of a lion shot in German East 

 Africa which stood fully three feet nine inches high, but 

 this is probably rather extraordinary. Still more does the 

 weight of full-grown lions vary, and not only the size 

 of the beast, but its general condition makes a great dif- 



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