284 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



knew more about the Gir Lions and their habits than I suppose 

 any one of his time, we are told that with age the whole body of 

 the Lion becomes darker and his mane grows black. I have not 

 myself seen a Gir Lion with an entirely black mane, but I have 

 assisted at the skinning of an old Lion which was shot by a friend, 

 of which the mane was partially black, and with increasing age 

 would doubtless have become entirely so. 



" In point of character I do not fancy there is much to choose 

 between the Kathiawar and the African Lion. Although Gir Lions 

 are often found alone, they prefer to move about in family parties 

 or pairs. Of several Lions I have shot, only one was alone — a 

 grand beast, which had been marked down by my trackers on the 

 summit of a low hill, where it was found sleeping in the breeze 

 under the shade of a small tree." 



After describing several successful Lion hunts in Kathiawar, 

 in which he was the principal actor, the writer proceeds : — 



" In point of size, I imagine, the Gir Lion is not much, if at 

 all, inferior to its African brother. Selous gives 9 ft. 11 in. as 

 the extreme length of his largest Lion in a straight line between 

 uprights, but this must have been an exceptionally large beast. In 

 1871 Captain Trotter, of the Trigonometrical Survey, is said to 

 have shot a full-grown Lion, which, as it lay on the ground, 

 measured from the nose to the tip of the tail 8 ft. 10 in., of which 

 5 ft. 11 in. was the length of the body ; the height at the shoulder 

 was 3 ft. 4 in., the girth of neck 2 ft. 6 in., the girth of chest 4 ft. 

 1 in., the girth of forearm 1 ft. 9 in., and the length of hair in 

 the mane 5 in. One shot by Colonel Jackson measured 9 ft., 

 two by the late Colonel Watson 9 ft. and 9 ft. 1 in. respectively, 

 and one by the late Captain Hebbert 9 ft. 6 in. I am unable to 

 say whether these measurements were taken between uprights or 

 along the curves of the head and body. The following are the 

 measurements of my best Lion, the one I have mentioned before 

 as having been shot on the top of a hill : — 



Total length, following the curves of the body 9 ft. 5 in. 

 Length of tail only 2 ft. 11 in. 



Two of my others taped respectively 9 ft. and 9 ft. 1 in. measured 

 in the same way. 



" The skull measurements of the 9-foot Lion were as follows : 

 — Length from insertion of incisors to end of occipital process, 

 13| in. ; depth, 6J in. ; width across zygomatic arches, 9j in. A 



