THE LION. 



215 



pated. There is some variation in the different races of lions 

 from these distant localities ; but this is by no means of suf- 

 ficient importance to establish a distinction between them. The 

 Asiatic lion seldom attains a size equal to that of the full-grown 

 South-African j its colour is of a more uniform and paler yellow 

 throughout j and its mane is, in general, fuller and more com- 

 plete, being furnished, moreover, with a peculiar appendage in 

 the long hairs, which, commencing beneath the neck, occupy 

 the whole of the middle line of the body below. All these 

 distinctions are, however, modified by age, and vary in different 

 individuals. Their habits are in essential particulars the same. 

 The ordinary length of the Asiatic lion, from the end of the 

 muzzle to the root of the tail, is about six feet, and its height 

 above three feet ; but the African, as before intimated, is much 

 larger. Pringle says, a male lion that was killed at Douglas 

 Water, on the eastern frontier of the Cape colony, measured 

 nearly twelve feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. Its fore- 

 leg, below the knee, was so thick, that he could not span it with 

 both hands j and its neck, breast, and limbs appeared, when the 



