504 CARNIVORA 
are all specifically distinct, no common structural character has been 
pointed out by which the former can be separated from the latter. 
On the contrary, most of the minor groups into which the genus 
has been divided have representatives in both hemispheres. 
Notwithstanding the considerable diversity in external appear- 
ance and size between different members of this extensive genus, 
the structural differences are but slight, and so variously combined 
in different species that the numerous attempts hitherto made to 
subdivide it are all unsatisfactory and artificial, The principal 
differences are to be found in the form of the cranium, especially 
of the nasal and adjoining bones, the completeness of the bony orbit 
posteriorly, the development of the first upper premolar and of the 
inner tubercle of the upper carnassial, the length of the tail, the form 
of the pupil, and the condition and coloration of the fur, especially 
the presence or absence of tufts or pencils of hair on the external 
ears. Writing in 1881 Professor Mivart+ gave the number of 
existing species of Felis as 48, but by Mr. Blanford’s reduction of 
the number of Indian species? the list may now be diminished to 
some 41. The following account is chiefly devoted to some of the 
more important and better known species. 
A. Old World Species—The Lion (Ff. leo, Fig. 224) has been 
well known to man from the earliest historic times. Its geographi- 
cal habitat made it familiar to all the races among whom human 
civilisation took its origin, and its strongly marked physical and 
moral characteristics have rendered it proverbial, perhaps to an 
exaggerated degree, and have in all ages afforded favourite types 
for poetry, art, and heraldry. The literature of the ancient Hebrews — 
abounds in allusions to the Lion ; and the almost incredible numbers 
that are stated to have been provided for exhibition and destruction 
in the Roman amphitheatres (as many as six hundred on a single 
occasion by Pompey, for example) show how abundant these 
animals must have been within accessible distance of the capital of 
the world. 
The geographical range of the Lion was once far more extensive 
than at present, even within the historic period covering the whole 
of Africa, the south of Asia, including Syria, Arabia, Asia Minor, 
Persia, and the greater part of Northern and Central India, and also 
the south-eastern portion of Europe, as shown by the well-known 
story told by Herodotus of the attacks by Lions on the Camels which 
carried the baggage of the army of Xerxes on its march through 
the country of the Ponians in Macedonia. The very circum- 
stantial account of that historian shows that the animal in his time 
ranged through the country south of the Balkans, through Rou- 
mania to the west of the River Carasu, and through Thessaly as far 
1 The Cat, pp. 392-426 (1881). 
* Fauna of British India, ‘ Mammalia,” pp. 56-90 (1888). 
