XI COLOURS OF CATS 303 
creature the spots, it is said, give the impression of flecks of sun- 
light broken up by foliage. On the other hand, the self-coloured 
Cats of a sandy to earthen hue assimilate in tint with a sandy or 
stony soil. The stripes of the Tiger, it is thought, approximate 
to the tall parallel stems of grasses and other plants in the dense 
cover in which it lives. In favour of these views is undoubtedly 
the fact that in other mammals and other animals belonging to 
quite different groups the same four plans of coloration are met 
with. Spots and cross stripes are found in the Marsupials; the 
young Tapir is spotted while the adult is self-coloured, and so 
forth. This last fact, however, serves to illustrate another view 
which has been put forward in explanation of these characteristic 
markings of the Felidae. Eimer has come to the conclusion 
that there is and has been a regular series of steps in the 
evolution of these markings. The primitive condition was, he 
thinks, a longitudinally striped one; the stripes then broke up 
into spots, and the spots rearranged themselves as transverse 
stripes; the self-coloured Puma and Lion are a final stage in this 
gradual evolution. In support of this is the fact that spots 
precede self-coloration in the individual growth of these animals. 
The exact sequence of these markings is, however, contradicted 
by Dr. Haacke’s observations upon a certain Australian fish 
which is cross striped when young and longitudinally striped 
when adult, a precise reversal of what ought to occur on Eimer’s 
view. 
The Felidae are almost universally distributed with the ex- 
ception, of course, of Australia and a good deal of the Australian 
region; the headquarters of the group are undoubtedly in the 
tropics of the Old World. 
The characteristics of a few species of the Cat tribe will now 
be given. As there are at any rate forty-five species, this survey 
will have to be somewhat incomplete. 
The Lion, #. /eo, differs from all other species by the mane of 
the male. It is an inhabitant of Africa, India, and certain parts 
of Western Asia. Within the historic period it ranged into 
Europe. According to Sir Samuel Baker those of us who have 
not seen the Lion in his native haunts have never seen a really 
magnificent specimen of the brute; but other travellers disagree, 
_ and state that a captive Lion is often a finer animal—by reason, 
of course, of good feeding. Unlike the majority of Cats, the Lion 
