Part 33 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Tendons of Tiger's toe.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Tiger's auditory apparatus.]
The senses of hearing and smell are much developed, and the bulb of the ear (_bulla tympani_) is here found of the largest dimensions.
I have once before alluded to this in writing of the bears, in whom this arrangement is deficient. I give here a section of the auditory apparatus. I do not know whether the engraver has effectually rendered my attempt at conveying an idea, based as it is on dissections by Professor Flower; but if he has failed I think the fault lies in the shakiness of my hand in attempting the fine shading after nearly breaking a saw and losing my temper over a very tough old skull which I divided before commencing my ill.u.s.tration. The great cavity is the _bulla tympani_ or bulb of the ear; _a m_ is the _auditory meatus_ or external hole of the ear. On looking into a dry skull the pa.s.sage seems to be of no great depth, nor can an instrument be pa.s.sed directly from the outside into the great tympanic cavity, the hindrance being a wall of bone, _s_, the _septum_ which divides the _bulla_ into two distinct chambers, the reason for which is not very clear, except that one may suppose it to be in some measure for acoustic purposes, as all animals with this development are quick of hearing. The communication between the two chambers lies in a narrow slit over the _septum_, the Eustachian tube, _e_, being on the outside of the _septum_ and between it and the tympanum or ear drum, _t_.
The above are the chief characteristics of the family. For the rest we may notice that they have but a rudimentary clavicle imbedded among the muscles; the limbs are comparatively short, but immensely muscular; the body lithe and active; the foot-fall noiseless; the tongue armed with rough papillae, which enables them to rasp the flesh off bones, and their vision is adapted for both night and day.
None of them are gregarious, as in the case of dogs and wolves. One hears sometimes of a limited number of lions and tigers being seen together, but in most cases they belong to one family, of which the junior members have not been ”turned off on their own hook” as yet.
_GENUS FELIS_.
NO. 200. FELIS LEO.
_The Lion_ (_Jerdon's No. 103_).
NATIVE NAMES.--_Sher-babbar_, _Singh_, _Unthia-bagh_.
HABITAT.--Guzerat and Central India.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Felis leo_ (Indian variety).]
DESCRIPTION.--The lion is almost too well known to need description, and there is little difference between the Asiatic and African animal.
It may, however, be generally described as being distinguished from other Cats by its uniform tawny colour, flatter skull, which gives it a more dog-like appearance, the s.h.a.ggy mane of the male, and by the tufted tail of both s.e.xes.
SIZE.--From nose to insertion of tail, 6 to 6-1/2 feet; tail, 2-1/2 to 3 feet; height, 3-1/2 feet.
The weight of one measured by Captain Smee, 8 feet 9-1/2 inches, was (excluding the entrails) thirty-five stone. This must be the one alluded to by Jerdon, but he does not state the extraction of the viscera, which would add somewhat to the weight.
Young lions when born are invariably spotted; and Professor Parker states that there were in the Zoological Gardens in 1877 three lions which were born in the menagerie about ten years previously, and which showed ”indistinct, though perfectly evident, spots of a slightly darker tawny than the general ground-tint on the belly and flanks.” He adds: ”This is also the case with the puma, and it looks very much as if all the great Cats were descended from a spotted ancestor.” The more dog-like head of the lion is well known to all who have studied the physiognomy of the Cats, and I have not only noticed it in drawing the animal, but have seen it alluded to in the writings of others. It was not, however, till lately that I had an opportunity of comparing the skulls of the lion and tiger in the Calcutta Museum, and I am indebted to Mr. c.o.c.kburn of the museum, not only for the trouble he took in getting out the various skulls, but for his a.s.sistance in pointing out certain peculiarities known to him, but of which I was at the time ignorant. That the skull of the lion is flatter than, and wants the bold curve of, those of the tiger, leopard and jaguar, is a well-known fact, but what Mr.
c.o.c.kburn pointed out to me was the difference in the maxillary and nasal sutures of the face. A glance at two skulls placed side by side would show at once what I mean. It would be seen that the nasal bones of the tiger run up higher than those of the lion, the apices of whose nasal and maxillary sutures are on a level. On leaving the museum I compared the tiger skulls in my possession with accurate anatomical drawings which I have of the osteology of the lion, and the result was the same. It is said that there is also a difference in the infra-orbital foramen of the two animals, but this I have failed to detect as yet, though a.s.serted by De Blainville in his magnificent work on osteology ('Osteographie').
From all that has been written of the African and Indian lions I should say that the tiger was the more formidable of the two, as he is, I believe, superior in size. About twenty-two years ago my attention was drawn to this subject by the perusal of Mr. Blyth's article on the _Felidae_ in the old _India Sporting Review_ of 1856-57. If I am not mistaken there was at that time (1861) a fine skeleton of a lion in the museum, as well as those of several tigers, which I measured. I had afterwards opportunities of observing and comparing skeletons of the two animals in various museums in Europe, though not in my own country, for my stay in England on each occasion of furlough was brief, and in almost every instance I found the tiger the larger of the two. The book in which I recorded my observations, and which also contained a number of microscopic drawings of marine infusoria, collected during a five months' voyage, was afterwards lost, so I cannot now refer to my notes.
I believe there was once a case of a fair fight between a well-matched lion and tiger in a menagerie (Edmonds's, I think). The two, by the breaking of a part.i.tion, got together, and could not be separated.
The duel resulted in the victory of the tiger, who killed his opponent.
The lion seems to be dying out in India, and it is now probably confined only to Guzerat and Cutch. I have not been an attentive reader of sporting magazines of late years, and therefore I cannot call to mind any recent accounts of lion-killing in India, if any such have been recorded. At the commencement of this century lions were to be found in the North-West and in Central India, including the tract of country now termed the Central Provinces. In 1847 or 1848 a lioness was killed by a native s.h.i.+kari in the Dumoh district.
Dr. Spry, in his 'Modern India,' states that, when at Saugor in the Central Provinces in 1837, the skin of a full-grown male lion was brought to him, which had been shot by natives in the neighbourhood.
He also mentions another lioness shot at Rhylee in the Dumoh district in 1834, of which he saw the skin. Jerdon says that tolerably authentic intelligence was received of the presence of lions near Saugor in 1856; and whilst at Seonee, within the years 1857 to 1864, I frequently heard the native s.h.i.+karis speak of having seen a tiger _without stripes_, which may have been of the present species. The indistinct spots on the lion's skin (especially of young lions), to which I have before alluded, were noticed in the skin of the lioness shot at Dumoh in 1847. The writer says: ”when you place it in the sun and look sideways at it, some very faint spots (the size of a s.h.i.+lling or so) are to be seen along the belly.”
Lions pair off at each season, and for the time they are together they show great attachment to each other, but the male has to fight for his spouse, who bestows herself on the victor. They then live together till the young are able to s.h.i.+ft for themselves. The lioness goes with young about fifteen or sixteen weeks, and produces from two to six at a litter. But there is great mortality among young lions, especially about the time when they are developing their canine teeth.
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