ZOOLOGY :u;r, 



to this, the same wild-cat interbreeds freely witli tlic durnestic animal, 

 even though the latter may be of European oritrin, and tiie kittens of the 

 mixed lireed become handsome creatures. 



The lion is found fairly abundantly throughout the Uganda Protectorate, 

 excepting only in the dense forests or in the more settled districts. There 

 is nothing specially remarkable about the lion in these parts, excejit 

 l)erhaps that young ardmals of both sexes often, when fully grown, though 

 not quite mature, retain rather clearly, marked in reddish lirown, the spots 

 of their cub-hood. On one skin of a young male lion killed by our ex- 

 pedition the spots are so clearly marked that their shape may be prettv 

 well defined, and they appear to be strikingly like in arrangement the 

 rosettes, single spots, and spots-ranning-into-stripes of a leopard skin. In 

 all probability both the lion and the tiger developed on independent lines 

 from a leopard-like form, the lion keeping the leopard's Ujarkings unaltered 

 until they f;ided away into the general dun colour of the body, wliile in 

 the tiger the rosettes gradually lengthened into stripes. On some tiger 

 skins the stripes are double throughout their length, and are simply 

 drawn-out rosettes. In the case of the lion, in all })robability the ground 

 colour of the skin darkened from the original yellow to its present tawnv 

 tint, while the spots faded from black to reddish brown. Curiously enough, 

 an analogous process is going on with the woolly cheetah found in South 

 Africa. In this case also the spots are fading from black into reddish 

 brown, while the rest of the fur is changing from pale yellow to dark 

 fawn colour. I do not know that I can say that the lions of Uganda are 

 more spotted than any other race, for since making these observations 

 I have examined other lions now alive in the Zoological Gardens from 

 other parts of Africa, and these in two instances present types retaining 

 the spots in quite as marked a manner as is the case with the specimens 

 I have examined in Uganda. I doubt whether it has been any particular 

 advantage to the lion to lose his spots ; one might imagine that on 

 retaining his lionhood he has cared more for the mane, and strength of 

 jowl and limb, and less for the decoration of his skin. What strikes one 

 irresistibly in these countries is that leopards, when seen in the open at 

 a little distance, appear to be without spots, and of as uniform a tawny 

 tint as a lion. 



On nearly all the occasions when I have seen leopards wild in I'ganda. 

 I have either mistaken them for young lionesses or even for the hornless 

 females of antelopes ! — and this though my sight is good. Female reed- 

 buck have a certain way of crouching before plunging away in a loose-limbed 

 gallop which may very well cause one to mistake a leopard half hidden 

 in the grass for an innocuous doe. It is generally not until one sees tlie 

 long leopard tail waving in the air as the creature bounds away in a 



