IV VARIATION IN LIONS 79 



maned and tawny-maned specimens belong, in most 

 cases at any rate, to distinct local races." 



The objection to this theory is that you cannot 

 classify all African lions under two heads, the black- 

 maned and the tawny-maned. Dealing with this 

 subject in 1881, and referring only to the skins of 

 lions I had seen which had been killed in the 

 country between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, I 

 wrote as follows : *' I cannot see that there is any 

 reason for supposing that more than one species 

 (of lion) exists, and as out of fifty lion skins scarcely 

 two will be found exactly alike in the colour and 

 length of the mane, I think it would be as reason- 

 able to suppose that there are twenty species as 

 two. The fact is, that between the animal with 

 hardly a vestige of mane and the far handsomer but 

 much less common beast with a long flowing black 

 mane every possible intermediate variety may be 

 found." Since that time I have seen a great many 

 more skins of lions shot in the country to the south 

 of the Zambesi, as well as a number from limited 

 areas of country in East Africa and in Somaliland, 

 and it appears to me that the lions of these two 

 latter very limited areas show exactly the same 

 variations as regards colour and profuseness of mane 

 as their congeners in the more southerly parts of 

 the continent. 



I have seen the skins of many lions and lionesses 

 in South Africa, which seemed to be those of full- 

 sized animals though they may have been young 

 in years, showing very well-defined red-brown spots 

 on the legs, flanks, and belly. The old Boer hunters, 

 indeed, had a name for such lions, " bont pod 

 leeuws " (spotted-footed lions), which some of them 

 maintained belonged to a distinct species. I once, 

 however, showed the skins of five lions, which I 

 had recently shot in Mashunaland, to a well-known 

 Boer hunter. One was that of a large male with a 



