NATURE'S REALM. 75 
Two WEST AFRICAN FISHES. 
“ SARCELLE.”-—We have had the photographs 
you sent us reproduced. Fig. 1 represents the 
Pagrus unicolor, Giinther. It does not reach 
American waters, being found most frequently 
on the western coast of Africa. It is allied to 
the “snapper” and ‘“‘porgy” of our waters. 
Dr. David S. Jordan gives it the scientific name 
of Sparus unicolor. 
Fig. 2 represents another non-American fish, 
Lithia vadigo, which belongs to the family of 
horse mackerels or tunnies. With the genus 
Lithia ichthyologists are not entirely familiar, 
and Giinther dismisses it with a few lines. In 
our Atlantic waters we have several species of 
which lions were found to have a small claw or 
prickle attached to the tips of their tails. After 
Stating that it has long been a popular, though 
erroneous, impression that lions and lionesses 
lash themselves with their tails to stimulate 
their rage, and that they were furnished with 
this prickle at the termination of the caudal 
appendage in order to do so, the writer goes 
on to observe : 
«««Mr. Bennett detected it in the tip of the 
tail of a young Barbary lion. Blumenbach 
had previously ascertained the fact of its exist- 
ence in a specimen examined by himself in 
1829. Monsieur Deshayes announced the ex- 
istence of this prickle in a lion and lioness 

Fic. 1.—Pagrus unicolor. 
the ‘horse mackerel, but, although many of 
them are taken by the market fishermen, they 
are not esteemed as food, although highly 
prized as such in the Old World from the time 
of the ancient Romans to the present day. 
THE CLAW IN THE LION’s TAIL. 
Quite an interesting correspondence, fro and 
con, as to the existence of a claw in the tuft of 
a lion’s tail, is now being printed in our London 
exchanges. We excerpt the most important 
paragraphs : 
“T have seen it stated in an old natural his- 
tory book that instances have been known in 
which died in the Paris Menagerie. Mr. 
Woods detected it only once out of numerous 
lions which he purposely examined. He also~ 
found a similar prickle on the tail of an Asiatic ~ 
leopard. This prickle is in fact only occasion- 
ally present It is not connected with the cau-: 
dal vertebrz, but, as Mr. Woods says, appears - 
to be inserted into the skin like the bulb of a-: 
bristle; but Monsieur Deshayes asserts that> it: 
is of a conical shape, and adheres to the skin 
by its base, as does also Blumenbach. We are 
inclined to think that it is nothing more than 
indurated and partially detached cuticle. 
Certainly it falls off on the slightest touch.’ 
‘| think, if this latter is a fact, it is very cu- 
