I 
]  70  CAPT.  W.  SMEE  ON  THE  MANELESS  LION  OF  GUZERAT. 
convex,  its  highest  point  being  at  the  upper  part  of  the  junction  of  the  nasal  with  the 
maxillarv  bones.  These  differences,  however,  it  is  to  be  remarked,  are  deduced  from 
the  examination  of  a  young  skull  only  of  the  maneless  Lion.  In  this  there  exists  on 
one  side  a  double  infraorbital  foramen ;  and  the  existence  of  the  same  structure  in 
another  skull  contained  in  one  of  the  skins  has  been  ascertained.  It  is  interesting  to 
mention  this  fact,  although  no  great  stress  can  probably  be  laid  on  it :  but  it  would 
seem  that  the  double  foramen,  either  on  one  or  both  sides,  is  generally  constant  in  the 
Guzerat  Lion,  as  in  two  skulls  from  that  country,  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Roval  College  of  Surgeons,  the  same  structure  occurs  which  I  have  found  to  exist  in 
the  two  individuals  of  my  own  collection  that  have  been  examined. 
Among  the  differences  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  describe  as  existing  between  the 
Lion  of  Guzerat  and  that  of  Africa,  there  seem  to  be  none  of  sufficient  importance  to 
authorize  their  distinction  as  species  originally  separate.  The  variation  in  the  form  of 
the  cranium,  perhaps  not  sufficiently  made  out,  would  probably,  even  were  it  certain 
and  constant,  be  scarcely  adequate  to  establish  a  specific  distinction :  and  the  other 
differences  to  Avliich  I  have  adverted  are  all,  as  it  will  have  been  observed,  differences 
in  degree  alone.  I  feel,  therefore,  unwilling  to  regard  the  maneless  Lion  of  Guzerat  as 
a  species  distinct  from  the  maned  Lion  of  Africa  and  India,  of  which  I  propose  rather 
to  consider  it  as  a  variety  to  be  designated 
Felis  Leo  Goojratensis. 
Jubd  maris  cervicali  hrevi  erectd,  ventre  ejubato ;  cauda  flocco  maxima. 
the  Lion  and  the  Tiger,  that  has  been  discovered.  My  attention  was  first  called  to  it  by  a  scientific  visiter  of 
the  Hunterian  Collection  some  months  back,  whose  name  I  regret  that  I  have  been  unable  to  learn,  and  I  am 
not  aware  that  it  has  been  given  to  the  public  in  any  form. 
"  There  are  some  minor  differences  observable  in  the  skuUs  of  the  Lion  and  Tiger,  which  may  also  be  noticed. 
"  The  infraorbittd  foramina  are  proportionally  larger,  chiefly  in  their  transverse  diameter,  in  the  Lion. 
"  In  the  crania  of  two  Lions,  the  only  ones  known  to  be  Asiatic  in  the  Museum  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Surgeons,  it  is  remarkable  that  this /oramew  is  double :  in  one,  which  was  killed  in  North  Guzerat,  this  occurs 
on  both  sides ;  in  the  other,  which  was  killed  near  Assund,  it  is  found  on  the  left  side  only. 
"  Two  skulLs  may  be  selected  out  of  the  twenty  crania,  one  of  a  Lion  and  the  other  of  a  Tiger,  in  which  the 
nasal  aperture  is  nearly  of  the  same  dimensions ;  but  is,  however,  perceptibly  narrower  at  the  lower  part  in  the 
Tiger.  All  the  other  skulls  of  the  Lion  deviate  from  the  one  selected  in  the  enlargement  or  squaring  of  the 
naj-al  aperture ;  all  the  other  skulls  of  the  Tiger  equally  deviate  from  the  one  selected  in  the  opposite  direction, 
the  naeal  aperture  growing  narrower  below,  or  more  triangular.  On  comparing,  therefore,  the  whole  together, 
the  naeal  aperture  is  seen  to  be  obviously  narrower  in  proportion  to  its  length,  and  smaller  in  relation  to  the 
^izc  of  the  whole  cranium,  in  the  Tiger  than  in  the  Lion.  This,  however,  can  only  be  regarded  as  an  accessory 
character,  to  be  noticed  after  ascertaining  the  more  important  ones  above  mentioned. 
"  'ilic  coronal  extremities  of  the  nasal  bones  of  the  Tiger  are  sunk  deeper  in  a  longitudinal  depression  than 
in  the  lAon  ;  and  in  most  of  the  Tiger  s  crania  this  depression  is  bounded  above  by  a  small  but  distinct  semi- 
lunar ridge,  which  has  its  concavity  directed  forwards.  This  ridge  does  not  appear  in  the  Lion's  crania." — R.  O. 
