1 78 BRITISH MAMMALS 



neck of the male. Even if this hair be not developed into a 

 mane, it stands out somewhat stiffly, and is directed forwards 

 from the shoulder towards the cheeks. This altered direction 

 of the hair of the neck, however, is to some extent met with 

 in leopards and tigers ; and in the male tiger there is the 

 beginning of a mane. The lion, tiger, leopard, and jaguar 

 differ from the other cats in the less perfect development of 

 the bones of the hyoid arch (that separate apparatus of bones 

 which supports the tongue and larynx), and in the pupil of 

 the eye, which, when contracted, shrinks to a circular hole, and 

 not a vertical slit. 



The lion and the tiger are somewhat divergent forms. The 

 tiger has a more arched and convex profile of the skull. The 

 commencement of the nasal bones also in the tiger takes 

 place much higher up on the forehead than is the case on the 

 lion's skull. There is also a difference in the fourth premolar, 

 or upper carnassial, tooth. It has already been mentioned that in 

 cats, besides the three lobes of the blade of this tooth, there is a 

 tubercle on the inner side. This tubercle is larger and better 

 developed in the upper carnassial of the tiger than it is in the 

 lion. The tiger's skull is also wider and more massive than the 

 lion's, and there are slight differences in the shape of the lower 

 jaw. Perhaps on the whole the lion is slightly more specialised 

 than the tiger, but it is almost certainly a direct development 

 from the Leopard group. So too is the tiger, with perhaps some 

 intervening form like the existing jaguar and the extinct Felts 

 cristata. The stripes of the tiger are the large, square rosettes 

 of the jaguar pulled out. In the case of the lion, the markings 

 which may be seen in the fur of young cubs and occasionally of 

 adult females are almost precisely those of a leopard. If we 

 could restore the lion's spots they would be nearly identical in 

 proportionate size and arrangement with the rosettes, single 

 spots, and short stripes of the leopard. There is one particular, 

 however, in which lion cubs differ strangely, both when born in 

 a wild state and in captivity. Sometimes, although the body is 

 spotted like a leopard, the tail is ringed with circular stripes. In 



