CLASSIFICATION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LION. 407 



represents neither one tiling nor the other. By one 

 skilled in dogs the characteristic marks of both will be 

 easily detected in the bastard offspring, for they are as 

 different from their parents as chalk is from cheese, 

 yet I would not make these nondescripts represent a 

 species. 



I daresay many will differ from me, but the follow- 

 ing is the classification I should make of the South 

 African lion : the black-maned, the yellow-maned, and 

 the maneless. 



The first animal stands high on his legs, in fact, is 

 the tallest of the race, lightest in the limb, most active 

 and most courageous. I think that this brute hunts 

 for pleasure as well as profit. I would not say that 

 every day this occurs, but that frequently it is instigated 

 by a love of the chase, and undertakes it or a descent 

 on a bullock train for the sake of the fun that it has in 

 slaughtering; as far as man is concerned, this is the 

 most venturesome and consequently the most to be 

 dreaded. 



The next is the yellow-maned lion, an uncouth, 

 great powerful beast, massive in limbs and neck, and 

 enormous in its girth of chest, but always possessed of 

 a hollow back, and looks extremely weak across the 

 coupling. This animal will attack anything, but it 

 wants hunger to wake him up from his lethargy. Not 

 that he is a coward far from it but a lazy beast, who 

 loves his ease, and will not take exercise until compelled 

 to do so to support the calls or demands of nature. 



The first or dark-maned lion will get into a kraal, 

 seize an ox or calf, and take it away with him; the 

 second will eat it if hungry where slaughtered, and defy 

 fifty men to prevent him. The latter at such a time can 



