190 Mr. W. T. Blanford's Zoological Notes. [No. 3, 



yellow, in about equal proportions. The ears were black on the 

 outside, and the tip of the tail was also black ; the lower tip white. 

 From the dark colour of a portion of the hair, there can be little 

 doubt that this was not an aged animal, although, from the fully 

 developed mane, it must have been mature, and not a young lion. 

 The spot where it was killed was near the 80th milestone, on the 

 railway from Allahabad to Jubbulpoor. 



I am indebted to Mr. Grote for a note from Captain Le Mesurier 

 confirming the above particulars, and adding the following, also 

 mentioned in the letter published in " Land and Water." 



" Some few years ago Mr. Court, who is now Commissioner of 

 Allahabad, and a very good sportsman, disturbed two lions on the 

 rocky plain near Sheorajpur, twenty-five miles west of Allahabad, 

 when he was stalking antelope." 



" Two years ago (1864) Mr. Arratoon of the Police shot at and 

 wounded a lion very near Sheorajpur, and eventually, with native help, 

 stoned him to death, as he had no spare ammunition. Some of the 

 members of my staff saw the skin, and got the story, nearly as I 

 relate it, from Mr. Arratoon, who still holds a police appointment 

 somewhere in the N. W. Provinces." 



The last authenticated appearances of an animal now verging on 

 extinction in Central India are, I think, sufficiently worth preserving 

 to demand a record. The Sheorajpur lion is, I believe, the furthest to 

 the eastward yet known as having been killed in the present century. 



Col. Torrens also has written to Mr. Grote to say that lions still 

 occur about Lalatpur, between Jhansi and Saugor. 



A few lions appear to be killed every year about Gwalior and 

 Goona, but the animal is scarce, and, being eagerly sought after by 

 some of the keenest sportsmen in India, it is rapidly becoming scarcer. 

 In the hot weather of 1866 no less than 9 lions were shot by one 

 party in the neighbourhood of Kota in Rajpootana. My information 

 is derived directly from one of the sportsmen, Major Baigire. Of one of 

 these Rajpootana lions I have seen a coloured drawing, taken imme- 

 diately after death by an excellent artist. The mane was very fine 

 and well developed, although the beast was killed in the hot weather, 

 when the mane, like the rest of the fur, is doubtless thinner than in 

 the winter. 



