VARIETIES OF THE LION. 



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shelter, food, and drink. When the traveller questions the natives concerning these wild beasts, which 

 Europeans suppose to be their companions in the desert, they reply, with imperturbable sangfroid, 

 1 Have you, then, Lions in your country which can drink air and eat leaves 1 We fear only the 

 viper, and, in humid spots, the innumerable swanns of mosquitos which abound there.' " * But the 

 sacred writer makes him come up from the " swellings of Jordan ;" and with Homer he is the 

 Mountain Lion : the " artists and poets " of M. Cai-ette are moderns, who know but little of the 

 subject; not ancients who were familiar with the beast. 



When an animal has a wide geographical distribution it is almost always found that it exhibits, in 

 different parts of its range, more or less well-marked varieties, distinguished from one another by 



LION OF BARBARY. 



evident though sometimes unimportant characters. This is the case with the Lion, of which five 

 varieties are usually distinguished, three being found in Africa, and two in Asia. These varieties, or 

 races, are as follows : - 



1. The Lion of Barbary. The fur is of a deep yellowish-brown colour, and the mane is more 

 developed than in any other variety, forming long tresses which cover the neck and shoulders, and are 

 continued along the belly and the inside of the legs. This variety extends over the whole of Africa 

 north of the Sahara. 



2. The Lion of Senegal is found in the western part of Africa, south of the Sahara. Its fur is of a 

 lighter colour than that of the Barbary Lion, and the mane is less thick, and hardly at all developed 

 over the breast and insides of the legs. 



* Humboldt : " Views of Nature.' 



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