CAPT.  W.  SMEE  ON  THE  MANELESS  LION  OF  GUZERAT. 
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similar  manner  from  a  point  on  the  slioulder  on  each  side.  In  the  adult  male,  whose 
shoulders  and  neck  are  covered  with  his  copious  mane,  the  direction  of  the  hairs  in  this 
part  can  scarcely  be  traced  with  certainty :  but  in  the  female  it  is  readily  observable, 
though  less  strongly  marked  than  in  either  the  female  or  the  male  of  the  Guzerat  Lion, 
The  female  of  the  African  Lion  has  along  the  middle  line  of  the  back  of  her  neck  a 
vestige  of  mane,  corresponding  with  that  of  the  Lioness  of  Guzerat ;  and  both  the 
male  and  female  have  ridges  of  hair  passing  down  the  face,  which  seem,  however,  to 
be  less  constant  and  regular  than  those  observed  in  the  Lion  of  Guzerat. 
In  the  African  Lion  also  the  reversed  direction  of  the  hairs  from  behind  forwards 
along  the  middle  line  of  the  back  from  the  loins  to  near  the  shoulders,  obtains  equally 
as  in  the  Lion  of  Guzerat.  This  latter  character  is,  however,  subject  to  variation ;  but 
whether  from  individual  peculiarities  or  as  indicative  of  the  existence  of  different  races, 
I  am  not  in  possession  of  sufficiently  numerous  facts  to  enable  me  to  determine.  In  a 
skin,  (preserved  in  the  Museum  of  the  East  India  Company  and  marked  as  having  been 
obtained  in  India,)  the  reversed  direction  of  the  hair  is  limited  to  about  one  half  of  the 
usual  extent,  reaching  forwards  from  the  loins  no  farther  than  to  near  the  middle  of 
the  back,  where  it  is  met  by  the  prolonged  termination  of  the  ordinary  series  of  back- 
wardly  directed  hairs  ^ .  In  one  other  skin  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  examine  it 
does  not  exist  at  all,  there  being  no  reversed  hairs  whatever  along  any  part  of  the 
middle  line  of  the  back :  the  animal  from  which  it  was  obtained  lived  formerly  in  the 
Society's  Menagerie,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  the  locality  from  which  it 
was  originally  procured. 
The  sutures  and  various  direction  of  the  hairs  which  have  just  been  described  appear 
to  be  peculiar,  in  the  genus  Felis,  to  the  Lion.  They  do  not  occur  in  any  other  species 
that  I  have  examined,  in  all  of  which  the  hairs  are  directed  regularly  from  the  head 
towards  the  extremity  of  the  body  and  tail  and  limbs.  This  is  equally  the  case  in  the 
Leopard,  destitute  of  the  slightest  appearance  of  mane,  and  in  the  Cheetah,  the  maned 
hunting  Leopard.  In  the  Cheetah,  to  which  I  have  already  compared  in  these  respects 
the  Lion  of  Guzerat,  the  mane  of  the  back  of  the  neck  and  that  of  the  sides  are  occa- 
sioned solely  by  the  elongation  and  crispation  of  the  hairs  of  these  parts,  by  means  of 
which  they  are  thrown  otf  from  the  skin ;  but  the  hairs  are  all  directed  backwards,  and 
have  in  this  respect  nothing  in  common  with  the  mane  of  the  Lion. 
The  quality  of  the  fur  in  the  Guzerat  Lion  corresponds  generally  wdth  that  of  the 
African  race,  being  short,  firm,  and  adpressed.  The  under  surface  in  both  is  furnished 
with  hairs  of  greater  length  than  the  upper  ;  but  in  the  Guzerat  Lion  these  are  only  so 
'  This  skin  is  also  remarkable  for  the  beautiful  manner  in  which  it  displays  the  whorling  of  the  hairs  from 
the  point  on  the  shoulder;  the  mane  is  sparing,  but  the  long  hairs  of  which  it  is  composed  commence  imme- 
diately from  the  whorl  and  radiate  in  all  directions. 
