4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 01 



Abbott. Specimens have also been examined at the British and 

 Berlin museums from south and west Africa. The west African 

 skulls are easily distinguishable from east or south African specimens 

 by their small size, great breadth and large carnasial or cheek 

 teeth. The Abyssinian lion approaches this western type in the 

 breadth of skull, but the teeth are of the small eastern type, and the 

 large skull also distinctive of the east coast lions. Distinctly the 

 largest of all is the South African lion, now quite extinct. The skull 

 averaged at least an inch longer in length than any of the equatorial 

 races, but was relatively quite narrow. In coloration the Cape race 

 resembled the Abyssinian, being tawny bodied with a black mane. 

 The Somali lion, the nearest geographical ally of the Abyssinian, is 

 a light-buff y colored desert race, closely resembling and doubtfully 

 distinct from the Masai lion. It is much shorter maned and smaller 

 in body size than the Abyssinian. The characters assigned by Noack 

 in the original description of Fclis Ico somaliensis of larger ears and 

 longer tail are not applicable to the race, these parts having the same 

 proportionate size as in other members of the group. Noack's 

 description was based on a pair living at the Berlin Zoological 

 Gardens, and the characters he assigned to the race, are merely such 

 as appeared upon casual observation and are not founded upon 

 actual measurements of a specimen. Doctor Matschie has informed 

 me that the types have been exchanged by the Berlin Zoological 

 Gardens with animal traders and their present abode is unknown. 

 The unfortunate condition of these types is a good illustration of 

 the loss and confusion to systematic work so often attendant upon the 

 pernicious custom of naming species from living specimens. In the 

 present case we have no exact characters and no knowledge of the 

 skull structure of the race described, merely a few casual observa- 

 tions to which are attached a general locality of doubtful value. Sev- 

 eral of the types of African big game mammals are to-day living in 

 various zoological gardens. Special efforts should be made by such 

 institutions to keep trace of these types and upon their death deposit 

 the specimens in the largest available public museum where they 

 may be preserved and accessible to zoologists for comparison. 



FELIS LEO NYANZ.S, new subspecies 

 Uganda Lion 

 Type, a flat skin, from Kampala, Uganda, gift of the European 

 residents to Colonel Roosevelt; adult male, Cat. No. 16455 1, U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. ; received Dec. 30, 1909; original (Heller) Xo. 580. 



