The Lion 77 



that the Asiatic, or more particularly the Indian, lion is 

 maneless. Dr. Blyth, however, was able to demonstrate 

 from the specimens in the Calcutta Museum that this was 

 not the case, and his view of the accidental character of 

 this deficiency is no doubt the true one. Frederick 

 Courteney Selous (" A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa ") 

 paid particular attention to this feature, and he states that 

 " out of fifty male lion skins, scarcely two will be found 

 alike in the color or length of mane " ; he adds that, judg- 

 ing from the same facts which those who multiply natural 

 groups rely upon, "it would be as reasonable to suppose 

 that there are twenty species as two." 



This is but a hint at those discrepancies which have 

 arisen from attaching different values to external and 

 secondary characteristics. Antagonisms of this kind are 

 overabundant, still there is no doubt that wherever lions 

 now exist, they are specifically the same. There is but one 

 genus of lion, with a single species, whose members vary 

 in size, skin-appendages, color, temper, and habits, with 

 the physiography of those provinces they inhabit, and 

 of their human population, with breed, age, temperament, 

 special environment, and their personal experience of men 

 and things. 



Sir Samuel Baker (" The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon ") 

 remarks in the course of his observations upon the Cin- 

 galese buffalo that no individual opinion upon the traits 

 and disposition of an animal "can be depended upon," 

 unless its pursuit " has been followed as a sport by itself." 

 The results of many hunters' experiences are, however, on 

 record, and so far as facts go, we are actually possessed 



