THE LION 223 



Rift Valley of Abyssinia, south through German East 

 Africa, and west as far as the Tanganyika drainage. 



The lion is universally distributed throughout eastern 

 Africa from the coast inland to the high plateaux, and is 

 wanting only in the dense forests and absolutely waterless 

 desert tracts. Almost a century ago an Austrian natural- 

 ist, von Meyer, published in Vienna descriptions of the 

 Barbary, Senegal, and Persian races of the lion which were 

 in vogue for a time. These names have remained long in 

 obscurity, however, and have only recently been brought to 

 light by Hollister.* Naturalists are now convinced that the 

 lion shows definite geographical variation which is con- 

 stant enough to warrant the recognition of many of the de- 

 scribed races. In 1900 Oscar Neumann named the East 

 African race, massaica, basing his description upon the skin 

 of an adult male which he had obtained in Kibaya, south of 

 Kilimanjaro, in German East Africa. Some years later 

 Lonnberg renamed the same race sabakiensis, from speci- 

 mens collected on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro. 



The East African race may be known by its light-buffy 

 color, yellow mane, large body size, narrow skull, and the 

 small size of the cheek teeth. The body color ranges from 

 an ochraceous-buff to an olive-buff, often showing a dis- 

 tinct gray cast. The mane usually shows black hair along 

 the* nape and throughout its posterior border on the shoul- 

 ders. Occasional specimens are found in which the whole 

 mane is black with the exception of the fore part on the 

 throat and sides of the head. Of the large series of speci- 

 mens from British East Africa in the National Museum 

 there is not one which can be classed as black-maned. A 

 specimen killed by Carl E. Akeley, on the Mau summit, 

 at 9,000 feet, near the station of Molo, has the greatest 

 amount of black in the mane of any specimen examined. 

 The dark extremes are seldom met, however, the usual 

 coloration being a light bufi^, lined dorsally by black-tipped 

 hairs, with a mane showing black-tipped hair only on nape 

 and shoulders. One of the color characters often assigned 

 to this race is the spotted sides in the adult. An examina- 

 tion of a large series of old or fully adult male skins, how- 



* Proc. Biol. Soc, Wash., 1910, p. 123. 



