CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 179 



other individuals the tail is marked longitudinally with circular 

 rosettes, exactly like the tail of a leopard. 



Gradually, as the lion discarded the forest and took to a life in 

 the open country, the ground colour of the fur, which may have 

 been pale yellowish-gray, deepened into tawny, while the black 

 spots faded into brown, until at last the lion became to all intents 

 and purposes a dun-coloured beast with a black tuft at the end 

 of his tail, black rims and backs to his ears, and a black fringe 

 (more or less) to his ample mane or along the line of the belly. 

 Such spots as remain in the adult lioness on the flanks, belly, and 

 limbs are chestnut-brown, but many of these spots on the lower 

 parts of the body in young cubs are quite black. It might be 

 noted in passing that leopards in the extreme south of Africa 

 (Orange River Colony or Transvaal) have been known occasionally 

 to throw off a curious variety. The size is large, and the build 

 somewhat heavy, like that of a lioness. There are a few black 

 stripes and spots on the head, neck, and limbs, but over the 

 greater part of the body the rosettes have given way to a 

 multitude of tiny black dots, almost merged into the general 

 tawny-gray of the fur. The change of black spots into tawny- 

 brown may also be noticed in the South African variety of the 

 cheetah. 



There is absolutely no difference in the structure, size, colour, 

 mane, or any other particular between the existing lions of Asia 

 and of Africa, but it is possible that the huge lion which once 

 inhabited Western Europe during the Pleistocene period may still 

 have retained the distinct black spots of the original leopard 

 markings, which have only faded in the more desert-loving type 

 that has since populated Western Asia and the whole of Africa. 



The range of the lion at the present day is limited to a small 

 district of Kathiawar, in Western India ; to a strip of Southern 

 Persia, the valley of the Tigris and Lower Euphrates ; to a small 

 portion of Southern, South-eastern, and South-western Algeria 

 (and perhaps the adjoining territory of Morocco south of the 

 Atlas) ; and to those regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert 

 from Senegal on the west across Nigeria to the Egyptian Sudan, 



