753 



FELID.E. 



FELID/F. 



754 



female cub of the same litter at the Society's Gardens, it existed in 

 the lioness at the Jardin du Roi. 



Mr. Woods, thinking it probable that these prickles might exist in 

 other species of Felis, had previously examined the tails of nearly the 

 whole of the stuffed skins in the Society's Museum, but failed in 

 detecting it in every instance but one. This was an adult Asiati< 

 Leopard, in which the nail was evident, although extremely small. Ii 

 was short and straight, but perfectly conical, with a broad base 

 Mr. Woods observed that it was stated in a note in the ' Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Journal,' where a translation of Blumenbach's paper 

 had been given, that a claw or prickle had also been observed by the 

 editor of that work on the tail of a leopard. No such structure 

 however was detected by Mr. Woods on a living individual in the 

 Society's Menagerie. In the Leopard therefore, as in the Lion, i 

 appears to be only occasionally present. In both it is seated at the 

 extreme tip of the tail, and is altogether unconnected with the 

 terminal caudal vertebra. From the narrowness and shape of its base 

 the circumference of which is by far too small to allow of its being 

 fitted like a cap upon the end of the tail, it appeared to Mr. Woods 

 rather to be inserted into the skin, like the bulb of a bristle or 

 vibrissa, than to adhere to it by the margin, as described by 

 M. Deshayes. Neither the published observations of that zoologist 

 nor the discovery then communicated to the Society could, it wag 

 observed, throw any light on the existence or structure of the 

 supposed glandular follicle noticed by Blumenbach. 



Mr. Woods concluded by remarking that it is difficult to conjecture 

 the use of these prickles, their application as a stimulus to anger 

 being of course out of the question ; but he observed that it coulc 

 not be very important, for, to say nothing of their small size anc 

 envelopment in the fur, the majority of individuals, in consequence 

 of the readiness with which the part is detached, are deprived of it 

 for the remainder of their lives. (' Zool. Proc.,' 1832.) 



Prickle at the end of Lion's Tail. (Blumrnbach.) 



Emasculation, it is stated, prevents the development of the mane ; 

 and the lion so mutilated ia said never to roar. 



The True Lions belong to the Old World exclusively, and they 

 were formerly widely and plentifully diffused ; but at present they 

 ore confined to Asia and Africa, and they are becoming every day 

 more and more scarce in those quarters of the globe. That lions 

 were once found in Europe there can be no doubt. Thus it is 

 recorded by Herodotus that the baggage camels of the army of Xerxes 

 were attacked by lions in the country of the Psconians and Crestoiuui, 

 on their march from Acanthus (near the peninsula of Mount Athos) 

 to Therme, afterwards Thessalonica (now Saloniki) : the camels alone, 

 it ia stated, were attacked, other beasts remaining untouched as well 

 as men. The same historian also observes that the limits in Europe 

 within which lions were then found were the Nessus or Nestus, a 

 Thracian river nmning through Abdera and the Achelous, which 

 waters Acarnania. (Herod., vii. c. 125-126, Schweighseuser.) Aristotle 

 (vi. 31) says that the lion is in fact an animal but little known. " In 

 the whole of Europe, for example, there are no lions except between 

 the Achelous and the Nessus." Again, the same author (viii., xxviii. 

 33 of Scaliger's division) mentions Europe as abundant in lions, niul 

 especially in that part which is between the Achelous and Nessus ; 

 apparently copying the statement of Herodotus. Pliny (viii. 16) does 

 the same, and adds that the lions of Europe are stronger than those 

 of Africa and Syria. Pausanias copies the same story as to the attack 

 of the lions on the camels of Xerxes ; and he states moreover that 

 lions often descended into the plains at the foot of Olympus, which 

 separates Macedonia from Thessaly ; and that Polyilamas, a celebrated 

 athlete, a contemporary of Darius Nothus, slew one of them, although 

 h was unarmed. The passage in Oppian (' Cyneg.,' iii. 22) which 

 some have considered as indicating the existence of lions up to the 

 banks of the Danube, fails as an authority for placing the Lion in 

 that locality, because, as Cuvier observes, the context shows plainly 

 that the name of Ister is there applied to an Armenian river either 

 by an error of the author or of the transcribers. 



Nor a Europe the only part of the world from which the form of 

 the Lion has disappeared. Lions are no longer to be found in Egypt, 

 Palestine, or Syria, where they once were evidently far from uncommon. 

 The frequent allusions to the Lion in the Holy Scriptures and the 

 various Hebrew terms there used to distinguish the different ages and 

 sex of the animal (see particularly Jer., 1L 38 ; Ezek., xix. 2 ; Nah., ii. 

 13 ; Ezek., xix. 2, 3 ; Psalm xci. 13 ; Prov., xix. 12, &c. ; Nah., ii. 12, 

 Ac. ; Job, iv. 10 x. 16; Prov., xxvi. 13 ; Hosea, v. 14 xiii. 7 ; Prov. 

 xxx. 30) prove a familiarity with the habits of the race. Even in Asia 



HAT. JIWT. DIV. VOL. II. 



generally, with the exception of some countries between India and 

 Persia, and some districts of Arabia, these magnificent beasts have, as 

 Cuvier observes, become comparatively rare, and this is not to be 

 wondered at. To say nothing of the immense draughts on the race 

 for the Roman arena and they were not inconsiderable, for, as Zim- 

 merman has shown, there were a thousand lions killed at Rome in the 

 space of forty years population and civilisation have gradually driven 

 them within narrower limits, and their destruction has been rapidly 

 worked in modern times when fire-arms have been used against them 

 instead of the bow and the sper.r. The African Lion is annually 

 retiring before the persecution of man farther and farther from the 

 Cape. Mr. Bennett (' Tower Menagerie ') says of the Lion : " His 

 true country is Africa, in the vast and untrodden wilds of which, 

 from the immense deserts of the north to the trackless forests of the 

 south, he reigns supreme and uncontrolled. In the andy deserts of 

 Arabia, in some of the wild districts of Persia, and in the vast jungles 

 of Hindustan, he still maintains a precarious footing ; but from the 

 classic soil of Greece, as well as from the whole of Asia Minor, both of 

 which were once exposed to his ravages, he has been utterly dislodged 

 and extirpated." 



Lions of the Old World. Zoologists generally distinguish the Lion 

 by its uniform yellow colour, the tuft of hair at the end of the tail, 

 and the mane covering the head and shoulders of the male. This last 

 ornament, as we shall presently see, is very much reduced in one 

 variety with which we were made well acquainted some years ago by 

 Captain Smee ; indeed so scanty is it that it hardly deserves the name 

 of a mane at all. 



If we go back to an early period, we shall find varieties of this 

 great cat, usually considered as the strongest of the family, depending 

 on the greater or less intensity of colour for the most part, mentioned 

 by ancient writers on natural history. Thus, Aristotle (ix. 44) dis- 

 tinguishes two kinds of lions, one rounder than the other (inpoyyv- 

 \uTfpov), and which has the mane more curled (ouAorpixwrfpoc), which 

 he states to be the most timid ($ft\6Ttpov) ; the other longer and with 

 a well-developed mane ((Krptxov), which he says is more courageous 

 (iu>Spfi6rfpov). Pliny (viii. 16) remarks that the Lion is most noble 

 when a mane covers his neck and shoulders ; and he also (loc. cit.) 

 alludes to a maneless lion, the offspring of a monstrous connection. 

 (" Leoni pnecipua generositas, tune cum colla armosque vestiunt jubtc. 

 Id enim setate contingit e leone conceptis. Quos vero pardi genera- 

 vere, insigni hoc careiit.") In Africa, he goes on to remark, such con- 

 nections are frequent : " Multiformes ibi animalium partus, vario 

 ftcminis cujusque generis mares aut vi aut voluptate miscente ; " 

 whence, he adds, the Greek vulgar saying, that Africa is always pro- 

 ducing something new. In the same chapter, Pliny, after alludiug to 

 the European lions and their comparative boldness, as above stated, 

 repeats the observation of Aristotle, that there are two kinds of lions, 

 one compact and short with curled mane, which are more timid than 

 those with a long and simple one (" longo simplicique villo ") ; which 

 last despise the wounds inflicted on them. In the 17th chapter of the 

 same book, Syria is stated to be the locality of a black lion : " creteris 

 unus cujusque generis color est. Leouum tantum in Syria uiger." 

 /Elian (xvii. 26) distinguishes the lions which come from India from 

 other lions, stating that the skin of the Indian lions is black. Oppian 

 (iii.), towards the beginning of that book, notices the differences 

 between the lions of Armenia, Arabia ('Ep/i/8o?v &poupa), Libya, and 

 Ethiopia. 



These distinctions are altogether rejected by Buffon, who denies that 

 there are different kinds of lions. He denies, also, that any lion has 

 a curled mane, which, by the way, Aristotle does not assert, for he 

 only says that one kind has the mane more curly than the other. 

 Suffon further affirms that the lions of Africa and Asia entirely 

 resemble each other ; and declares that if the lions of the mountains 

 differ from those of the plains, the difference is less in the colour of 

 toe skin than in the size of the respective animals. 



Linntcus, in his last edition of the ' Syst. Nat.,' notices no varieties : 

 le places Fdii Leo at the head of his genus Felis, with Africa only as 

 the habitat. Neither does Gmelin distinguish any varieties, but he 

 much increases the distribution; for he speaks of the Lion as inha- 

 iting Africa, especially in the interior, as being rarer in the deserts of 

 Persia, India, and Japan, and as having formerly occurred in other 

 warmer parts of Asia, in Palestine, in Armenia, and in Thrace. 



Pennant (' Hist. Quad.,' 3rd edition) appears to coincide in opinion 

 with Buffon, Linnjeus, and Gmelin ; for he mentions no distinctions, 

 and describes the Lion as " an inhabitant of most parts of Africa, and 

 rarely of the hot parts of Asia, such as India and Persia ; and a few 

 are still met with in the deserts between Bagdat and Bassorah, on the 

 banks of the Euphrates. Mr. Niebuhr also places them among the 

 mimals of Arabia ; but their proper country is Africa, where their 

 size is the largest, their numbers greatest, and their rage more tre- 

 mendous, being inflamed by the influence of a burning sun upon a 

 most arid soil. Dr. Fryer says that those of India are feeble and 

 cowardly. In the interior parts, amidst the scorched and desolate 

 deserts of Zaara, or Biledulgerid, they reign sole masters ; they lord 

 t over every beast, and their courage never meets with a check, where 

 he climate keeps mankind at a distance ; the nearer they approach 

 he inhabitants of the human race, the less their rage, or rather the 

 greater is their timidity : they have often experienced the unequal 



3 



