224 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



ever, showed the sides unspotted, but the adult females 

 and the young show darker spots on the sides of the belly 

 and inside of legs of an indefinite sort which are only evi- 

 dent on close inspection. The spots are large blotches of 

 ochraceous color and show very little contrast to the buffy 

 or whitish ground-color. The lioness is decidedly darker 

 than the lion, the body color being tawny and only ex- 

 ceptionally as light as the buff or olive-buff of the lion. 

 The lioness of the South African and Abyssinian races is 

 quite identical in tint of color to the lion. The former, 

 however, is not spotted on the sides of the belly. The lioness 

 of the Abyssinian race shows spots on the sides of the 

 belly and inside of the legs similar to those of massaicuy 

 with which they also agree closely in the tawny body color- 

 ation. The nearest geographical ally of the East African 

 is the desert race from Somaliland, from which it is doubt- 

 fully distinct. The coloration is quite identical in the two 

 forms, but the mane is apparently shorter, the body size 

 less, and the cheek teeth smaller in the Somali race. The 

 characters assigned by Noack in the original description of 

 Felis leo somaliensis, of larger ears and longer tail, are not 

 applicable to the race, these parts having the same pro- 

 portionate size as in other members of the group. Noack's 

 description was based on a pair living at the Berlin Zo- 

 ological Gardens, and the characters he assigned to the race 

 are merely such as appeared upon casual observation and 

 are not founded upon actual measurements of specimens. 

 Doctor Matschie has informed us that the types have been 

 exchanged by the Berlin Zoological Gardens to animal 

 traders, and their present abode is unknown. The unfor- 

 tunate condition of these types is a good illustration of the 

 loss and confusion to systematic work so often attendant 

 upon the pernicious custom of naming species from living 

 specimens. In the present case we have no exact char- 

 acters and no knowledge of the skull structure of the race 

 described as somaliensis, merely a few casual observations 

 to which are attached a general locality of doubtful value. 

 Several of the types of African big-game mammals are to- 

 day living in various zoological gardens. Special efforts 

 should be made by such institutions to keep trace of these 

 types, and upon their death deposit the specimens in the 



