FELINES OF THE OLD WORLD. 



163 



THE TRUE FELINES 



(FELIS). 



The genus Felis, the members of which 

 are spread over the entire area occupied by 

 the family as a whole, includes indeed numer- 

 ous species and varieties, but exhibits so 

 much uniformity in general structure that it 

 is impossible to divide it up into smaller 

 groups of less value. There is certainly a 

 great difference between a lion or tiger and 

 the wild cat as regards size; but in all other 

 respects the felines resemble one another so 

 closely, and the intermediate forms are so 

 numerous, that we glide in a sense from one 

 extreme of the series to the other without 

 being able to find a halting-place. The 

 characteristics assigned by us to the family 

 are true for all the members of the genus 

 without exception, and we can add only a 

 few details pertaining to their peculiar con- 

 ditions of life. 



Felines of the Old World. 



Among the large species the first place is 

 assigned by most to "the king of beasts," 

 the Lion [Felis leo), Plates VIII. and IX., 

 which is distinguished by its form, by the 

 mane which adorns the male, by the uniform 

 colour of its coat, which is always yellowish, 

 but varies from pale yellow to brown or even 

 black in places, by the existence of a horny 

 wart at the end of its tufted tail, and by the 

 disproportion between the powerful shoulders 

 and fore-limbs and the relatively weaker and 

 less-developed hind-limbs. This dispropor- 

 tion is apparently increased in the males 

 by the presence of the mane, and is less 

 noticeable in the lioness, which in youth in- 

 deed is elegant in form, but in adult years 

 does not become more beautiful, since it is a 

 good deal disfigured by its loose hanging 

 abdomen and teats. 



An adult lion may attain the length of 

 about five feet, measured from the point of 



the snout to the root of the tail. The tail 

 measures about two feet and a half, or rather 

 more. The weight may amount to ' 440 

 pounds. It is manifest that such a mass, 

 when suddenly hurled by a mighty bound at 

 the back of an animal, is mostly sufficient in 

 itself to dash the latter to the ground. 



The lion ranges over the whole of Africa 

 and a part of East and Central Asia, and the 

 different species vary not a litde in size, in 

 the development of the mane, and in colour 

 according to the region in which they are 

 found. The Asiatic lions are the smallest, 

 and may even want the mane, as is the case 

 with a little-known variety belonging to 

 Gujerat. Among the African lions that of 

 the Cape has the most luxuriant mane and 

 the darkest colour, while the variety belong- 

 ing to the Atlas Mountains, represented in 

 Plate VIII., has a mane of a rather lighter 

 brown, and that of the Senegal (Plate IX.) a 

 mane of a yellowish hue. 



The lion is the only true feline which never 

 climbs trees. What it cannot reach by a leap 

 of from 10 to 13 feet in height is safe from 

 its claws. Lion-hunters even frequently 

 resort to the device of constructing screens 

 in the trees, behind which they conceal them- 

 selves close to a fastened victim, which serves 

 as a lure, attracting by its cries the royal 

 ravager. 



Like all other felines, the lion hunts singly, 

 or in the breeding season in company with 

 the female, and almost always in the dead of 

 night. He scours at a trotting pace wide 

 stretches of country in order to reach the 

 places where he hopes to find his prey. He 

 especially seeks for opportunities of finding 

 the large herbivora assembled together, and 

 with that purpose visits their habitual water- 

 ing-places and pasture-grounds and the in- 

 closures in which they are kept. The lion 

 is seldom seen by day. During daylight it 

 takes its rest in the thickest parts of jungles 

 and forests, in shady retreats difficult of ac- 

 cess, in open caves and clefts in the rocks, 



