THE BENGAL LION. ; 7 
sufficient importance to establish a distinction between 
them. The Asiatic Lion, of which we are now treating, 
seldom attains a size equal to that of the full-crown 
Southern African; its colour is a more uniform and 
paler yellow throughout; and its mane is, in general, 
fuller and more complete, being furnished moreover with 
a peculiar appendage in the long hairs, which, com- 
mencing 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: we shall therefore defer what we have farther to 
say on this head until we come to speak of the Cape 
Lion, and proceed to the history of the Asiatic individual 
now exhibiting in this Menagerie, a striking likeness of 
which is given in the engraving at the head of the present 
article. 
This fine animal, although called by the keepers “ the 
Old Lion,” is, in reality, little more than five years old ; 
and that designation was adopted only for the purpose 
of distinguishing him from the Cape Lion, a compara- 
tively modern resident of the Menagerie. His proper 
name, or rather that by which he has been known ever 
since his arrival at the Tower, is George. ‘The following 
anecdotes relative to the mode of his capture, and to his 
habits and demeanour in his captivity, are given on the 
authority of Mr. Cops, who derived his information on 
the first point from General Watson himself, and speaks 
to the rest from his personal observation. 
It was in the commencement of the year 1823, when 
the General was on service in Bengal, that being out one 
morning on horseback, armed with a double-barrelled 
