286 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



5. The E. hcmippus of E. Geoffroy St. Hilairc, from Syria, Mesopo- 

 tamia, and North Arabia. 



6. The £. oihiifcr of PaUas, from North Persia. 



THE LION 



{Fclis L'o) 



The Asiatic Hon having been noticed at considerable length in the 

 Grciit and Small Game of India ^ etc.^ a tew lines with regard to its distribu- 

 tion within the area treated ot in the present volume will he sufficient in 

 this place. In the event of the Indian lion being sub-specifically distinct 

 from the African animal (which has recently been divided into a number 

 of local races by Messrs. Neumann ' and Matschie'-), it should be known 

 as F. li'o givzcratcnsis, and it is highly probable that the Persian lion is 

 identical. 



In Persia the lion at the present day, according to Mr. Blanford, is 

 found in Mesopotamia, on the west tianks of the Zagros Mountains east of 

 the Tigris valley, and in the wooded ranges south and south-east of Shiraz. 

 It is unknown on the Persian table-land. 



In Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece the lion was still to be met with in 

 Greek classical times. " In Palestine," writes Canon Tristram in his 

 Natural History of the Bihh\ " the lions had their lairs in the forests, which 

 have perished with them, and in the cane brakes of the Jordan. Not only 

 did they supply the imagery of Psalmists and Prophets, but they lingered 

 there till the times of the Crusades, and are mentioned as living about 

 Samaria by historians of the twelfth century. ... It was probably during 

 the period of the Greek and Roman dominion that it became almost 

 extirpated, and now the lion can scarcely be said to exist in Asia west ot 



* Zootogisc/.e 'Jahrbuc/}, \ol. \iii. p. 551 (1900). 

 - S.B. Off. iiaturfor. Berlin, 1900, p. 98. 



