761 



FELID.E. 



FEL1DJE. 



762 



established for this curious race thau Captain Smee is at preseut 

 disposed to regard as probable. 



Captain Smee remarks that he ia aware that the existence of these 

 Maneless Lions in Guzerat had been previously although by no means 

 generally known, and quotes Colonel Sykes as having this knowledge. 

 Sir Charles Malet had also seen lions on the banks of the Somber- 

 muttee, and though he makes no mention of the absence of the mane, 

 Captain Smee thinks that they in all probability belonged to this 

 maneless race, and indeed Sir Charles attributes to hia lion the native 

 name noticed by Captain Smee above. 



Our author makes the following remarks on the passages to be 

 found in the ancient writers bearing on this subject : " Having 

 alluded in the commencement of this communication, to the opinion 

 that a maueless lion was known to the ancients, it might be expected 

 that I should here bring forward and discuss the several passages 

 which have been looked upon as supporting this view. Where how- 

 ever the critics are at fault, it would be presumptuous iu me to 

 attempt to decide. I own that I do not find in the passages usually 

 referred to any evidence at all satisfactory as regards the existence 

 of lions destitute of mane ; and I am even far from willing to admit 

 that the crisped hairs noticed by Aristotle as distinguishing one race 

 of lions from another, in which the hairs were either dense or straight, 

 must of necessity be considered as those of the mane rather thau 

 of any other part of the body. The language of Oppian is equally 

 obscure, and even the expressions used by him are warmly contested 

 by the critics. Another Greek writer, Agatharchides, the Peripatetic, 

 speaks of the Arabian and especially the Babylonish Lions, in terms 

 that recall Olivier's description of those of Baghdad, but still with no 

 definite application to the want of a mane. Pliny alone, so far as I 

 am aware, mentions the absence of mane as a distinctive mark of 

 one race of lions; but to this race he attributes a monstrous 

 generation, and he was probably altogether misled with respect 

 to it." 



We may here remark that a maueless lion is said to be represented 

 on the monuments of Upper Egypt. 



Captain Smee thus characterises his Maneless Lion : 



felif Leo, Linn., var. Goojrattntit. Mane of the male short, erect ; 

 tuft at the apex of the tail very large, black. (' Zool. Proc.,' 1833; 

 and also ' Zool. Trans.,' vol. i.) 



Maneless Lion of Ou/erat. 



The habits of the Asiatic Lions do not differ much from those of 

 Africa, excepting that the former, from the state of the country 

 frequent jungles. In India the elephant is generally employed in 

 the chace, which is even now conducted with more pomp and 

 qjrcuuistance than in Africa. The grand Asiatic huntings of former 

 timed, those of Genghis Khan for instance, will occur to many of 

 our readers. The accounts of most Asiatic modern sportsmen give 

 most courageous bearing to the lions in these encounters. One of 

 these states that the lions in India, instead of running away when 

 pursued through a jungle, seldom take to cover as a refuge at all. 

 On the approach of their enemies, they spring out to meet them 

 open-mouthed in the plain. They are thus easily shot ; but if they 

 are misled or only slightly wounded, they are most formidable 

 adversaries. They are even said to have sprung on the heads of 

 the largest elephants, and to have fairly pulled them to the ground, 

 riders and all. 



The lioness is naid to go with young five months, and produces 

 generally from two to three or four at a litter, which are born blind. 

 Three, two males and a female, were whelped in the Tower ou the 



20th October 1827, the day of the battle of Navariuo ; but the number 

 seems generally to be two. In captivity the liouess usually becomes 

 very savage as soou as she becomes a mother; aud in a state of nature 

 both parents guard their young with the greatest jealousy. Mr. Bennett 

 relates that iu the commencement of the year 1823, General Watson, 

 then on service in Bengal, being out one morning ou horseback armed 

 with a double-barrelled rifle, was suddenly surprised by a large male 

 lion, which bounded out upon him from the thick jungle at the distance 

 of only a few yards. He instantly fired, aud the shot taking com- 

 plete effect, the animal fell dead almost at his feet. No sooner had 

 the lion fallen than the lioness rushed out, which the general also shot 

 at, and wounded severely, so that she retired into the thicket. Thiuk- 

 ing that the den could not be far distant, he traced her to her retreat, 

 and there dispatched her, and in the den were found two beautiful 

 cubs, a male and a female, apparently not more than three days old. 

 These the general brought away ; they were suckled by a goat and 

 sent to England, where they arrived in September 1823, as a present 

 to George IV., and were lodged in the Tower. The male was the 

 animal from which Mr. Bennett gives his figure aud description of the 

 Bengal Lion, and the female was the mother of the cubs whelped in 

 the Tower, above alluded to. (' Tower Menagerie.') The young are 

 at first obscurely striped, or brindled, aud somewhat tiger-like in tho 

 coat. There is generally a blackish stripe extending along the back, 

 from which numerous other bands of the same colour branch off, 

 nearly parallel to each other on the sides and tail. The head and 

 limbs are generally obscurely spotted. When young they mew like a 

 cat ; as they advance the uniform colour is gradually assumed, and 

 at the age of ten or twelve mouths the mane begins to appear in the 

 males ; at the age of eighteen mouths this appendage is considerably 

 developed, and they begin to roar. (Bennett.) F. Cuvier states 

 that it is nearly the third year before the mane and the tuft on the 

 tail appear, and that they are not fully developed before the seventh 

 or eight year. It should however be borue in mind that the Bengal 

 Lion mentioned by Mr. Bennett, and figured by him, was magnificently 

 mam d, and he was little more than five years old. The period of 

 shedding the milk-teeth is very often fatal to the young animals in a 

 state of captivity. The natural period of a lion's life is generally 

 supposed to be 20 or 22 years. Such is Buffon's limitation, but the 

 animal will it seems live much longer. Pompey, the great lion which 

 died in 1760, was said to have been in the Tower above 70 years ; and 

 one from the river Gambia is stated to have since died there at the 

 age of 63. 



The lion, from its power and supposed generosity of disposition, 

 has been popularly hailed as the Kiug of Beasts, and considered as 

 the emblem of majesty and might. It is the symbol of the British 

 nation, and is borne in the royal arms, of which it forms one of the 

 supporters, and which it surmounts as the crest. Captain Smee 

 remarks, in allusion to the hybrid mentioned by Pliny, that it is by no 

 means improbable that the maneless feline beast which occurs in the 

 older armorial bearings may have been intended to represent a lion 

 leoparded. This term, he observes, is still in use among the heralds 

 of France, but is employed by them with reference only to the 

 position of the head ; if the full face is shown, the animal, whether 

 maned or maneless, is in their language a leopard ; if the side face 

 alone is seen, it is a lion. Hence with them the lions passant and 

 gardant of the arms of the kings of England would be either lions 

 leoparded or leopards maued. He goes on to state that the omission 

 of the mane, in rude tricking, would indeed reduce them to leopards, 

 and as such they were originally regarded. The emperor Frederic II., 

 in choosing his preseut of three leopards to our Henry III., was 

 actuated, according to Matthew Paris, by the bearing in the royal 

 shield of England, " in quo tres leopard! transeuutes figurautur." 

 (' Zool. Trans.') 



The generosity of disposition so liberally accorded to this powerful 

 beast has been much and eloquently praised. It seems almost sacri- 

 legious to dissipate the glowing vision which Buffou has raised ; but 

 if there is any dependence to be placed on the observations of those 

 travellers who have had the best opportunities of judging, and have 

 the highest character for veracity, we must be compelled to acknow- 

 ledge that Buffon's lion is the lion of poetry and prejudice, and very 

 unlike the cautious lurking savage that steals on its comparatively 

 weak prey by surprise, overwhelms it at once by the terror, the 

 weight, and the violence of the attack, and is intent only on the 

 gratification of its appetites. "At the time," says Mr. Burchell, 

 " when men first adopted the lion as the emblem of courage, it would 

 seem that they regarded great size and strength as indicating it ; but 

 they were greatly mistaken in the character they had given of this 

 indolent animal." The fact of the lion sparing the dog that was 

 thrown to him, and making a friend of the little animal that was 

 destined for his prey, has been much dwelt on ; but these aud other 

 such acts of mercy, as they have beeu called, may be very easily 

 accounted for. If not pressed by hunger, the lion will seldom be at 

 the trouble of killing prey ; and the desire for a companion has created 

 much stronger friendships between animals in confinement than that 

 between a lion and a little dog. 



The lion is easily tamed, and capable of attachment to man. The 

 story of Androdus, frequently called Androcles, is too well known to 

 need more than allusion, and we learn from Bell's ' Travels' that the 



