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XIX.  Some  Account  of  the  maneless  Lion  of  Guzerat.    By  Capt.  Walter  Smee,  of  the 
Bombay  Army,  F.Z.S. 
Communicated  December  10,  1833. 
In  bringing  under  the  notice  of  the  Society  the  accompanying  skins  of  a  Lion  and 
Lioness  killed  by  me  in  Guzerat,  I  esteem  myself  fortunate  in  being  enabled  to  demon- 
strate, by  their  exhibition,  that  there  exists  a  race  in  which  the  king  of  beasts  is  desti- 
tute of  the  flowing  mane  which  constitutes  the  most  remarkable  of  his  regal  ornaments. 
That  such  a  race  existed  in  ancient  times,  and  that  in  more  modern  days  it  was  still  to 
be  met  with,  has,  I  am  aware,  been  very  generally  believed  by  zoologists :  but  the 
belief  has  hitherto  rested  on  the  testimony  of  authors,  and  has  not  until  now  been  con- 
firmed in  Europe  by  the  only  evidence  which  can,  in  such  cases,  be  regarded  as  con- 
clusive,— the  production  of  the  animal  itself,  or  of  its  skin.  The  skins  now  before  the 
Society  are  selected  from  among  eight  which  I  have  brought  to  England :  the  total 
number  of  such  Lions  killed  by  me  in  the  district  in  which  they  were  obtained  having 
been  eleven.  In  none  of  them  was  the  mane  more  extensive  than  in  the  male  now  ex- 
hibited ;  and  in  none  of  them  was  it  in  any  degree  pendent. 
The  epithet  of  maneless,  as  applied  to  this  Lion,  is,  however,  rather  comparative  than 
positive :  it  is  maneless  as  compared  with  the  Lion  of  Africa,  in  which  the  long  and 
dense  and  flowing  hairs  that  spring  from  the  hinder  part  of  the  head,  from  the  neck, 
and  from  the  shoulders,  conceal  completely  the  form  of  these  parts,  and  envelope  the 
whole  of  the  anterior  part  of  the  animal  except  its  face  :  it  is  maned  as  compared  with 
the  Tiger,  the  Leopard,  and  other  large  species  of  the  genus  Felis, — maned  even  in  a 
greater  degree  than  the  hunting  Leopard  or  Cheetah,  to  which  the  designation  oi  juhata 
has  been  specially  appropriated.  As  in  the  last-named  animal  so  in  the  Guzerat  Lion  is 
the  back  of  the  neck  ornamented  by  a  broad  longitudinal  line  of  erect  hairs  of  greater 
length  than  those  of  the  adjoining  parts  ;  as  in  it  the  sides  of  the  neck  are  also  furnished 
with  longer  hairs ;  but  the  throat  has  in  addition  hairs  of  still  greater  length,  which 
hang  downwards  in  loose  silky  locks.  It  is  therefore  only  as  a  Lion  that  it  can  be 
regarded  as  maneless,  but  as  a  Lion  it  is  well  entitled  to  this  distinction. 
The  nature  and  appearance  of  the  mane  will  be  best  understood  by  describing  with 
some  little  detail  the  covering  of  the  anterior  part  of  the  body.  On  the  top  of  each 
shoulder  there  is  a  point  from  which  the  hairs  diverge  in  all  directions  in  a  whorled 
manner :  adjoining  to  this  point  they  are  all  equally  short  with  those  on  the  body 
z  2 
