CHAP. XII.] 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF CATS. 



393 



on each side of the body, and with a longitudinal black mark along 

 the middle of the back. The mane begins to grow when the animal 

 is about three years old, and is completed when it is about six 

 years old. 



It is said to live for forty, and certainly lives for thirty, years, 

 and it attains a length of 9^ feet. The animal's internal organiza- 

 tion is such as has been already described with respect to the cat, 

 save in certain details. Thus the pupil is round, never contracting 

 into a vertical slit. The anterior cornua of the hyoid bone do not 

 continue up to the skull, but an elastic ligament, about six 

 inches in length, connects, on each side, the lesser cornu of the 

 os hyoides with the tympano-hyal. The intestine is four times the 

 length of the body.* 



The convolutions of the brain are rather more contorted than in 

 the cat, and the same is the case with all the largest species of cat- 

 like animals. The tapetum extends mostly below the optic nerve, 

 only a small portion being above it.f The nasal processes of the 

 maxillary bones end acutely, and reach backwards, on the dorsum of 

 the skull, as far as, or a little beyond, the nasals. 



In the skull of one old lion } which I have examined, there is no 

 trace of upper true molars, or even of their alveoli. 



The lion is not an arboreal animal, but roams over the plains of 

 the countries it inhabits. It is found generally diffused in Africa, 

 also in Persia and Arabia, and in Cutch and Gujerat in Western 

 India. It is occasionally met with as far east as near Allahabad. 

 Formerly it existed all over central India and in South-eastern 

 Europe. We have no valid ground, however, for believing that a 

 large maned-cat, or lion, ever inhabited England or the adjacent 

 part of Europe. 



(2.) THE TIGEE (Felis tigris) \\. 



The Tiger is the largest and most powerful of all existing cats. It 

 is of a bright rufous fawn colour on the dorsal surface of the trunk, 

 head, and limbs, with vertical and with transverse dark stripes on the 

 body, limbs and tail. These markings serve to distinguish it from 

 every other cat. The hair of the cheeks is rather long and spreading. 

 That of the ventral surface is white. The animal may attain a length 

 of ten feet six inches. Its maxillary bones end bluntly, and do not 

 reach as far backwards as do the nasals. The hyoid is connected to 

 the skull by ligaments as in the lion. The pupil is round, and 

 never linear. Tigers that prey on cattle will kill an ox about every 



* Owen, Trans, of Zool. Soc., vol. i., 

 pp. 130 and 131. 



t Owen, Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. iii., 

 p. 252. 



: No. 4504 A, in the museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons. 



Lions attacked the baggage camels 

 of Xerxes when in Macedonia. 



II See D. G. Elliot's Monograph of 

 Felidse, and De Blainville's Osteographie, 

 Felis, plate 7. 



