288 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



at Utambara. "It was also an old native police sergeant of his, 

 who, when shown the skin, said he knew the animal, told us its 

 native name, and informed us of its habits, namely, that it is ex- 

 tremely shy, never attacked domestic animals except possibly a 

 young kid, and, when chased by dogs, never took to a tree as a 

 Cheetah occasionally does. . . . 



"It was found that Mr. Watters, Native Commissioner at Bitika, 

 possessed two such skins. . . . These were presumably obtained in 

 his district. Apart from these two, I found Mr. Lacey of Salisbury 

 also had a specimen, . . . killed some twenty miles south of Salis- 

 bury. . . . 



"This is the history of the discovery, if it can be described as 

 such." 



Pocock reports (1927a, p. 246) that the animal whose skin was kept 

 at the Utambara Mission "was shot in the Melsetter District close 

 to the Portuguese Border. . . . The natives were not at all afraid 

 of it as they were of leopards, and would attack it armed only with 

 assegais." He says also (19276, p. 19) : 



In the interests of the preservation of the new species of cheetah the 

 following probabilities cannot be too strongly insisted upon. All the avail- 

 able evidence suggests that the animal has a restricted range and is nowhere 

 plentiful. Its distributional area is within reach of Salisbury, an easily 

 accessible centre; and the publicity now given to the existence of so hand- 

 some an animal will surely be taken advantage of by sportsmen and traders. 

 All the big museums in the world will be eager for its skin, and every 

 zoological garden will want live specimens for exhibition. It will, therefore, 

 command a high price, whether alive or dead, and the result will be per- 

 secution by hunters and trappers on such a scale as to threaten its extinction 

 unless the authorities in Rhodesia at once take such steps as may be neces- 

 sary to protect it. 



There seem to be no nature reserves within the known range of 

 the King Cheetah. 



Barbary Lion. Le Lion de Barberie (Fr.). El Leon 

 berberisco (Span.) 



LEO LEO LEO (Linnaeus) 



Felis leo Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 41, 1758. ("Africa"; type locality 

 subsequently restricted to Constantine, Algeria, by J. A. Allen, Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 47, p. 222, 1924.) 



FIGS.: Reichenbach, 1836, figs. 1-2; Geoffroy and Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mammif., 

 vol. 1, pis. 114-115, 1824. 



The Barbary Lion survived well into the twentieth century but 

 is now extinct. 



"Very large, dusky ochery, with the mane very thick and long, 

 extending to the middle of the back; and a thick and heavy mane 



