NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 397 



in the few cases in which specimens were not available, the 

 characters have been copied from descriptions by previous 

 writers. The notes on distribution and habits have been com- 

 piled from various writers, especially from the works of Jerdon, 

 Blyth, Hodgson, Elliot, Kelaart, Tickell, Sterndale, M'Master, 

 Forsyth, Sanderson, and others, supplemented by the Editor's 

 own observations made during a sojourn of more than twenty 

 years in India. 



The result is that we have an excellent digest of all that is 

 important in regard to the better-known mammals of India, while, 

 as regards the rarer species, seldom met with, and difficult to 

 procure, we are furnished with transcripts of the original 

 descriptions, with references to such supplementary information 

 as has since been published concerning them. 



Eeferring to the present distribution of the Lion in India, 

 Mr. Blanford says (p. 57) : — 



"In India the Lion is verging on extinction. There are probably a 

 very few still living iu the wild tract known as the Gir in Kattywar, and 

 a few more in the wildest parts of Rajputaua, especially Southern Jodhpur, 

 iu Oodeypur, and around Mount Abu. About twenty years ago Lions were 

 common near Mount Abu, several were shot near Gwalior, Goona, and 

 Kota, and a few still existed near Lalitpur, between Saugor and Jhansi. 

 One is said to have been killed near Goona in 1873. Iu 1864 one was 

 killed near Sheorajpur, twenty-five miles west of Allahabad ; and when the 

 railway was being made from Allahabad to Jubbulpoor in 1866, a fine Lion 

 with a good mane was shot by two of the engineers near the eightieth mile- 

 stone from Allahabad. About 1830 Lions were common near Ahmedabad. 

 Several years previously, in the early part of the century, Lions were found 

 in Hurriana to the northward, and in Khandesh to the south, in many 

 places in Rajputaua (one was shot iu 1810 within forty miles of Kot Deji 

 iu Siud), and eastward as far as Rewah and Palamow. It is probable that 

 this animal was formerly generally distributed in North-western and Central 

 India. I have never heard of Lions in Cutch, and suspect Jerdon was 

 mistaken in supposing them to be found there. Eastward and northward 

 of India the Lion is not found, and almost the only part of Western 

 Asia in which it is common is in Mesopotamia aud part of South-western 

 Persia." 



Mr. Blanford is of opinion that there is only one species of 

 Lion common to Asia and Africa, regarding the so-called " mane- 

 less Lion of G-uzerat" as merely a variety, and described from an 

 immature example. 



