ON ABNOKMALLY MARKED LION CUBS 
249 
The second and older cub, which lived a short while, 
displays the same spotted character of the fur, but it is 
much less defined, whilst the lateral stripes are more promi- 
nent, and of a whitish-fawn colour. 
In both cases the spots are continued on the tail and 
the legs. The outer surface of the ear in both is clothed 
with a close fur of black hair. A slight tendency to fawn 
stripes on a dark ground is seen on the face of the still- 
born cub. 
The interest and value of these cubs lies in the fact 
that they show very clearly that the lion, although sand- 
coloured when adult, has nevertheless been derived from 
spotted ancestors. The presence of faint stripes upon the 
fur of young lion cubs is, I believe, fairly general, and the 
spotted condition is not rare, but scarcely so well marked 
usually as in the case of the stillborn cub. 
Mr. F. E. Beddard, in discussing the question of colora- 
tion of the Felidae, draws attention to other sand-coloured 
species besides the lion, as, for example, the puma, the 
cubs of which are markedly spotted. 
In the two cubs now under consideration, it is evident 
that the formation of light- coloured stripes is a subse- 
quent effect to the formation of spots. 
In the tiger it has been noticed that some of the dark 
stripes so characteristic of the animal are like spots 
drawn out, and if such has been the case — that is, if the 
spotted areas have passed into stripes by the development 
of the colour areas in two opposite directions — then the 
intervening spaces would be the equivalents of the faintly 
indicated fawn stripes on the bodies of these two cubs. 
Various theories and conjectures have been put forward 
from time to time respecting the coloration of the Felidae, 
and upon certain points there is a fair amount of 
agreement, viz., that the spotted coloration which is most 
marked in cats leading an arboreal existence is a necessity 
