FELIDsE 507 



surface of the body, wanting, however, in some examples, 1 It must, 

 however, be observed that these characters are peculiar to the adults 

 of the male sex only, and that young lions show indications of 

 the darker stripes and mottlings so characteristic of the greater 

 number of the members of the genus. 



The usual colour of the adult is yellowish-brown, but it may 

 vary from a deep red or chestnut brown to an almost silver gray. 

 The mane, as well as the long hair of the other parts of the body, 

 sometimes scarcely differs from the general colour, but it is usually 

 darker and not unfrequently nearly black. The mane begins to 

 grow when the animal is about three years old, and is fully de- 

 veloped at five or six. 



In size the Lion is only equalled or exceeded by the Tiger 

 among the existing Felidce ; though both species present great 

 variations, the largest specimens of the latter appear to surpass the 

 largest Lions. A full-sized South African Lion, according to Selous, 

 measures slightly less than 10 feet from nose to tip of tail, follow- 

 ing the curves of the body. Harris gives 1 feet 6 inches, of which 

 the tail occupies 3 feet. The Lioness is about a foot less. The 

 tongue, like that of the other species of the genus, is long and flat, 

 and remarkable for the development of the papillae of the anterior 

 part of the dorsal surface, which (except near the edge) are modified 

 so as to resemble long, compressed, recurved, horny spines or claws ; 

 these, near the middle line, attaining the length of one-fifth of an 

 inch. They give the part of the tongue on which they occur the 

 appearance and feel of a coarse rasp, and serve the purpose of such 

 an instrument in cleaning the flesh from the bones of the animals 

 on which the Lions feed. 



The habits of the Lion in a state of nature are fairly well known 

 from the united observations of numerous travellers and sportsmen 

 who have explored those districts of the African continent in which 

 it is still common. It lives chiefly in sandy plains and rocky places 

 interspersed with dense thorn-thickets, or frequents the low bushes 

 and tall rank grass and reeds that grow along the sides of streams 

 and near the springs where it lies in wait for the larger herbivorous 

 animals on which it feeds. Although it is occasionally seen abroad 

 during the day, especially in wild and desolate regions, where it is 

 subject to but little molestation, the night is, as in the case of so 

 many other predaceous animals, the period of its greatest activity. 

 It is then that its characteristic roar is chiefly heard, as thus graphi- 

 cally described by Gordon Gumming : 



1 Mr. Selous, whose opportunities for obtaining evidence upon this subject 

 were very large, says that in the region of South Africa, between the Zambesi 

 and the Limpopo rivers, he never saw a lion with any long hair under the body, 

 and that the manes of the wild lions of that district are far inferior in develop- 

 ment to those commonly seen in menageries in Europe. 



