CAPT.  W.  SMEE  ON  THE  MANELESS  LION  OF  GUZERAT. 
173 
cular,  is  far  from  being  sufficiently  detailed  to  allow  of  the  satisfactory  identification  of 
his  animal  with  that  of  Guzerat.  Should  subsequent  inquiries  prove  that  he  was  cor- 
rectly informed  as  to  the  locality  from  which  the  maneless  Lions  seen  by  him  at  Bagdad 
w^ere  obtained,  and  prove  also  their  identity  with  those  of  Guzerat,  a  more  extensive 
geographical  range  will  be  established  for  this  curious  race  than  I  am  at  present  dis- 
posed to  regard  as  probable. 
One  other  notice  of  a  maneless  Lion  remains  to  be  added :  it  is  the  latest  that  has 
been  published,  but  sufficient  time  having  elapsed  since  its  announcement  to  have  al- 
lowed of  full  details  having  been  given  to  the  world  (details  which  as  regards  so  inter- 
esting a  subject  would  scarcely  have  been  deferred),  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that 
some  error  may  have  occurred  respecting  it.  I  refer  to  the  announcement  in  Mr.  Grif- 
fith's English  Edition  of  Cuvier's  '  Regne  Animal ' ' ,  that  a  maneless  and  brownish 
coloured  species  of  Felis,  larger  than  a  Lion,  had  been  forwarded  from  Nubia  to  the 
Frankfort  Museum. 
Having  alluded,  in  the  commencement  of  this  communication,  to  the  opinion  that  a 
maneless  Lion  was  known  to  the  ancients,  it  might  be  expected  that  I  should  here 
bring  forward  and  discuss  the  several  passages  which  have  been  looked  upon  as  sup- 
porting this  view.  Where,  however,  the  critics  are  at  fault,  it  would  be  presumptuous 
in  me  to  attempt  to  decide.  I  own  that  I  do  not  find  in  the  passages  usually  referred 
to  any  evidence  at  all  satisfactory  as  regards  the  existence  of  Lions  destitute  of  mane ; 
and  I  am  even  far  from  wilhng  to  admit  that  the  crisped  hairs  noticed  by  Aristotle ^  as 
distinguishing  one  race  of  Lioiis  from  another  in  which  the  hairs  were  either  dense  or 
straight,  must  of  necessity  be  considered  as  those  of  the  mane  rather  than  of  any  other 
part  of  the  body.  The  language  of  Oppian  is  equally  obscure,  and  even  the  expressions 
used  by  him  are  warmly  contested  by  the  critics^.  Another  Greek  writer,  Agatharchides  * 
the  peripatetic,  speaks  of  the  Arabian,  and  especially  the  Babylonish  Lions,  in  terms 
that  recall  Olivier's  description  of  those  of  Bagdad,  but  still  with  no  definite  application 
to  the  want  of  a  mane.  Pliny ^  alone,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  mentions  the  absence  of 
mane  as  a  distinctive  mark  of  one  race  of  Lions ;  but  to  this  race  he  attributes  a 
monstrous  generation,  and  he  was  probably  altogether  misled  with  respect  to  it. 
Pliny,  however,  in  many  of  his  fables  has  had  his  followers  ;  and  it  is  by  no  means 
improbable  that  the  maneless  feline  beast  which  occurs  in  the  older  armorial  bearings 
may  have  been  intended  to  represent  a  Lion  leoparded.  This  term  is  still  in  use  among 
the  heralds  of  France,  but  is  employed  by  them  with  reference  only  to  the  position  of 
the  head  ;  if  the  full  face  is  shown,  the  animal,  whether  maned  or  maneless,  is  in  their 
'  Vol.  ii.  p.  428.  -  Arist.  Hist.  Anim.,  Ed.  Seal,  Tolos.  1619,  p.  1154. 
3  Oppian.,  Ed.  Schneid..  pp.  2,34  &  365.— Ed.  Belin.,  pp.  108  &  318,  319. 
*  Agatharch.  Hist.,  Oxon.  1597,  p.  41,  *  Hist.  Nat.,  lib.  8.  cap.  16. 
2  A  2 
