Maneless Lion of Guzerat. 379 



Captain Smee remarked that the existence in Guzerat of a mane- 

 less Lion had been known thirty years since by Colonel Sykes, and 

 that Olivier had seen at Bagdad a similar animal, which was under- 

 stood to have been brought thither from Arabia ; but that hitherto, 

 he believed, no skin of such a race had fallen under the observation 

 of naturalists in Europe. Besides the absence of the extensive mane, 

 it has to distinguish it from the ordinary Lion, a somewhat shorter 

 tail, furnished at its tip with a much larger brush. 



Regarding it as a strongly marked variety of the Lion hitherto 

 known, Captain Smee proposed for it the following characters : 



Felis Leo, Linn., Var. Goojratensis. Jubd maris cervicali 

 brevi, erectti ; caudce Jlocco apicali maxima nigra. 



Hab. in Guzerat (et in Arabia?) [et in Persia? *]. 



A male measured, including the tail, 8 feet 9* inches in length 

 His total weight, exclusive of the entrails, was 4-J- cwt. 



The maneless Lion extends in Guzerat through a range of country 

 about forty miles in length, where it is known as the Ontiah Baug 

 or Camel Tiger, a name derived from its colour. In the hot months 

 it is found in the low bushy wooded plains that skirt the Somber- 

 mutty and Bhardar rivers, from Ahmedabad to the borders of Cutch. 

 It is destructive to cattle, but does not appear to attack man. When 

 struck by a ball it exhibits great boldness, standing as if preparing 

 to resist its pursuer, and then going oft' slowly, and in a very sullen 

 manner ; unlike the Tiger, which, on such occasions, retreats spring- 

 ing and snarling. 



Captain Smee entered into various details respecting the animals 

 exhibited by him, comprehending the heads of a paper f On the 

 maneless Lion of Guzerat," which he had prepared for the Society*. 



* We are enabled to add, upon the authority of an English gentleman 

 holding a high rank in the Persian military service, that a maneless variety 

 of the Lion exists also in Persia, inhabiting the forests of Mazanderan and 

 Ghilan ; and that it resembles (some of?) the sculptured representations of 

 the Lion on the ruins at Istakhr, in the same country, hitherto usually re- 

 garded as those of the ancient Persepolis. It will be seen, on reference to 

 Heeren, (Historical Researches, 'AsiaticNations,' vol. i. pp. 169, 184, Oxford 

 183.3,) that the animal designated by some of these sculptures has been a 

 subject cf doubt in the minds of those who have described or endeavoured to 

 interpret them. Such doubt would naturally arise, if they actually represent 

 a variety of the Lion nearly destitute of a mane, the existence of which was 

 unknown. The deficiency in this character has probably led to the supposi- 

 tion, (of which we have an instance in Rhode, who takes one of the figures to 

 be a hound or dog,) that these sculptures are not intended for the Lion but 

 for some other animal. The geographical connexion of Persia with Guzerat 

 on the one hand and Arabia on the other, renders it most probable that the 

 mum-less Linn which thus appears to occur in all the three countries belongs 

 to the same variety. It remains to be seen, whether, as conjectured by 

 Major Hamilton Smith (see Griffith's Cuvier, ' Mammalia,' vol. ii. p. 428), 

 * the skin and jaws of a new species of < !at, larger than the Lion, and with- 

 out mane," expected to be received from Nubia by Professor Kretschmen, 

 will prove to be those of the maneless Lion represented in the Egyptian 

 sculptures, and point out a fourth locality for this remarkable variety. 



E. W. B 

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