ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 297 



"The number of lions in the Gir is computed to be well below a 

 hundred." (Anonymous, 1935, p. 125.) 



Cadell (1935, pp. 165-166) writes as follows: 



The animals are easily enticed across the boundary [of Junagadh State] 

 by a succession of tie-ups. ... To our certain knowledge . . . twenty- two 

 animals have been so slain within the three seasons ending in 1934. . . . 



If every year the State has the very real honour and pleasure of enter- 

 taining distinguished guests for a lion shoot, it is a distinction which costs 

 a good many thousands of rupees. There is also the steady annual cost of 

 the sums paid in compensation to villagers and herdsmen whose cattle have 

 been killed by lions. . . . 



There were supposed to be less than a dozen [lions] in 1880 .... As a 

 result of the strict preservation during the [British] Administration [from 

 1911 to 1920] the number was believed to have increased to fifty .... It 

 has since been stated . . . that there are now two hundred lions. . . . My 

 own opinion ... is that there are not much more than 75 to 80. ... 



The pressure on Junagadh of suggestions for invitations to shoot lions 

 is ... increasing year by year .... Unless an agreement is reached [to 

 limit the number shot in one year to some such figure as five or six], and is 

 faithfully observed, the danger of the disappearance of the lion from the 

 fauna of India, and consequently from its last home in Asia, is obvious. 



Cape Lion. Leeuw (Boer) 



LEO LEO MEJLANOCHAITUS Hamilton Smith 



Leo melanochaitus Hamilton Smith, Jardine's Naturalist's Library, vol. 15, 

 Introd. to Mammalia, p. 177, 1846. ("Cape of Good Hope.") 



FIGS.: Griffith's Anim. Kingdom, vol. 2, pi. facing p. 428, 1827; C. H. Smith, 

 1846, pi. 10; Harris, 1840, pi. 29; Pocock, 1931, p. 208, lower fig. 



The Cape Lion was the first of the African subspecies of Leo leo 

 to become extinct. The last record for the Cape Province is ap- 

 parently 1858; for Natal, 1865. 



"The species is of the largest size, with a bull dog head ; . . . large 

 pointed ears edged with black; a great mane of the same colour 

 extending beyond the shoulders; a fringe of black hair under the 

 belly; a very stout tail, and the structure in general proportions 

 lower than in other Lions" (C. H. Smith, 1846, p. 177). 



Pocock (1931, p. 208) writes as follows concerning a mounted 

 specimen in the Junior United Service Club, London, which is "said 

 to have been killed near the Orange River about 1830, probably 

 . . . near Colesberg": 



The mane is not only remarkable for its luxuriance, length and extension 

 over the shoulder, but also for its blackness. It is indeed wholly black except 

 for the tawny fringe round the face and a certain amount of the same pale 

 hue low down on the shoulder. 



The elbow-tuft and tail-tuft are likewise big and black ; but the belly fringe, 

 long and thick behind, becomes gradually shorter and thinner and gradually 

 disappears in front of the chest. 



The interest of this lion lies in its being, so far as I am aware, the only 



