FELIS. 16. 
two, by the breaking of a partition, got together, and could not 
be separated. The duel resulted in the victory of the tiger, who 
killed his opponent. 
The lion seems to be dying out in India, and it is now probably 
confined only to Guzerat and Cutch. I have not been an attentive 
reader of sporting magazines of late years, and therefore I cannot 
call to mind any recent accounts of lion-killing in India, if any such 
have been recorded. At the commencement of this century lions 
were to be found in the North-West and in Central India, including the 
tract of country now termed the Central Provinces. In 1847 or 1848 
a lioness was killed by a native shikari in the Dumoh district. 
Dr. Spry, in his ‘Modern India,’ states that, when at Saugor in the 
Central Provinces in 1837, the skin of a full-grown male lion was 
brought to him, which had been shot by natives in the neighbourhood. 
He also mentions another lioness shot at Rhylee in the Dumoh 
district in 1834, of which he saw the skin. Jerdon says that tolerably 
authentic intelligence was received of the presence of lions near Saugor 
in 1856; and whilst at Seonee, within the years 1857 to 1864, I 
frequently heard the native shikaris speak of having seen a tiger zithout 
stripes, which may have been of the present species. The indistinct 
spots on the lion’s skin (especially of young lions), to which I have 
before alluded, were noticed in the skin of the lioness shot at Dumoh 
in 1847. The writer says: ‘when you place it in the sun and look 
sideways at it, some very faint spots (the size of a shilling or so) are 
to be seen along the belly.” 
Lions pair off at each season, and for the time they are together 
they show great attachment to each other, but the male has to fight for 
his spouse, who bestows herself on the victor. ‘They then live together 
till the young are able to shift for themselves. The lioness goes with 
young about fifteen or sixteen weeks, and produces from two to six at 
a litter. But there is great mortality among young lions, especially 
about the time when they are developing their canine teeth. This has 
been noticed in menageries, confirming a common Arab assertion. In 
the London Zoological Gardens, during the last twenty years, there has 
been much mortality among the lion cubs by a malformation of the 
palate. It is a curious fact that lions breed more readily in travelling 
menageries than in stationary ones. 
No. 201. FELIS TIGRIS. 
The Tiger ( Jerdon’s No 104). 
NATIVE NamME.—Zagh, Sher, Hindi; Sea-vagh, Go-vagh, Bengali ; 
Wuhag, Mahrathi; Mazar in Bundelkund and Central India ; Zw of the 
hill people of Bhagulpore ; JVongya-chor in Gorukpore; Pudi in Telegu 
M 
