CAPT.  W.  SMEE  ON  THE  MANELESS  LION  OF  GUZERAT. 
169 
had  again  the  opportunity  of  observing  the  various  living  Lions  from  Africa  now  or 
lately  to  be  seen  in  London.  My  impression,  however,  is  that  the  Lion  of  Guzerat  is 
comparatively  more  rounded  and  bulky  in  its  body,  and  rather  shorter  in  its  limbs  ; 
and  that  its  head  especially  is  shorter,  has  less  of  the  square  form  which  distinguishes 
the  open  face  of  the  male  African  Lion,  and  is  more  rounded  on  the  fore-head.  But  it 
is  by  no  means  impossible  that  this  difference  in  physiognomy  may  be  chiefly  owing  to 
the  existence  in  the  one  case  of  long  hairs  concealing  the  upper  part  of  the  fore-head, 
which  in  the  other  is  defined  and  visible,  having  on  it  none  beyond  the  ordinary  co- 
vering of  the  animal. 
The  cranium  of  the  Lion  of  Guzerat  generally  resembles  that  of  the  African  race, 
being  less  rounded  in  its  contour  than  that  of  the  Tiger :  its  fronto-facial  suture  has 
also  the  form  that  it  possesses  in  the  former,  the  frontal  processes  of  the  nasal  and 
maxillary  bones  being  both  prolonged  backwards  to  the  same  leveP,  But  the  space 
between  the  postorbital  processes  is  flattened  only,  and  not  concave  ;  and  the  facial 
plane  of  the  bones  is  comparatively  longer  than  the  cranial,  and  is  also  somewhat 
■  It  is  to  Mr.  Owen  that  I  am  indebted  for  the  knowledge  of  this  important  distinctive  character  between  the 
crania  of  the  two  largest  of  the  Carnivorous  Mammalia ;  and  he  has  kindly  allowed  me  to  add  the  following 
remarks  from  his  pen 
"  On  the  Differences  observable  in  the  Skulls  of  the  Lion  and  Tiger. 
"  On  comparing  together  the  crania  of  seven  Lions  with  those  of  thirteen  Tigers,  the  first  character  of  the 
Lion's  skull  assigned  by  Cuvier  (the  straightness  of  the  outline  from  the  midspace  of  the  postorbital  processes 
to  the  end  of  the  nasal  bones  in  one  direction,  and  to  the  occiput  in  the  opposite,)  is  to  a  certain  extent  appre- 
ciable ;  the  occipital  and  interparietal  crest  forms  a  concave  line  in  the  Tiger,  and  is  generally  straight  in  the 
Lion :  but  the  difference  is  so  slight  on  comparing  the  skull  of  a  large  male  Tiger  where  the  crest  is  strongly 
developed,  that  it  would  be  an  unsatisfactory  ground  of  distinction  if  unsupported  by  any  other  character. 
"  The  flattening  of  the  interorbital  space  in  the  Lion,  and  its  convexity  in  the  Tiger,  especially  in  the  trans- 
verse direction,  occasioned  by  the  down-sloping  of  the  supraorbital  ridges,  is  a  more  constant  and  appreciable 
character,  and  I  think  would  serve  alone  to  distinguish  two  crania  of  similar  dimensions  of  the  Lion  and  Tiger. 
"  But  there  is  in  the  extent  and  contour  of  the  nasal  processes  of  the  maxillary  bones,  a  difference  which  is 
constant  and  well  marked. 
"  In  eight  Lion's  skulls,  of  which  five  were  accurately  certified  to  be  Lion,  and  the  remaining  three  I  no 
longer  doubt  to  be  such  from  their  accordance  with  the  other  five  in  this  and  other  distinctive  characters,  I 
find  that  the  nasal  processes  of  the  maxillary  bones  extend  to  the  same  transverse  line  which  is  attained  by  the 
coronal  or  superior  ends  of  the  nasal  bones,  never  falling  short  of  this  line,  and  in  six  out  of  the  eight  passing 
beyond  it ;  the  terminal  contour  of  the  nasal  processes  of  the  maxillary  bones  being,  moreover,  rounded,  but 
more  or  less  tending  to  a  point. 
"  The  nasal  processes  of  the  maxillary  bones  in  the  Tiger  never  extend  nearer  the  transverse  plane  attained 
by  the  nasal  bones  than  one  third  of  an  inch,  and  sometimes  fall  short  two  thirds  of  an  inch ;  terminating 
broadly  in  a  straight  or  angular  outline,  just  as  if  the  rounded  ends,  which  we  see  in  the  Lion,  had  been  cut  off. 
"  This  character  is  so  obvious  and  constant,  and  the  comparison  with  reference  to  it  is  so  easily  made,  that  I 
regard  it  as  the  most  unfailing  and  valuable  means  of  distinguishing  the  skulls  of  these  giants  of  the  Carnivora, 
