LION, Fens leo, Linn.
Lowe GEn. Liono, Leone, Ir.
Sher, . . Peas. I Leon, Sy.
Untia-bag,. . . HIND. Arslan, . . . Tunic.
The lion is generally recognised to be of only one species, with the lion of Senegal, the lion of Barbary, the lion of Persia, the lion of Gujerat, Bunn of Cutch, and Kattyawar, and the lion of Gwalior and Hurriana as varieties. The lion is the desert king, as the tiger is the monarch of the jungles. It was, till early in the 19th century, tolerably plentiful at Gwalior, and also about Goonah, and lions have been killed 20 miles from Saugor, but wretched, mangy-looking things, the male generally nearly maneless, and usually in ferior in size and appearance to its African brothers. Tigers are said to avoid the lions, and to desert those jungles in which any roving lion may make its appearance. In the Kattyawar district, which the lions most affected, tigers were said to be unknown, though panthers are common. It has been also supposed that the lion avoids the tiger ; and in the Central Provinces, since tigers have been shot off, lions began to appear in the northernmost parts. The lion is very rare in Afghanistan, but has been heard of in the hilly country about Kabul, and there they are small and weak compared with the African lion. The lion is found as far as Tashkend, in a northerly and easterly direction. In 1837, Major Brown ( G unga ' of the Bengal Sporting Magazine) remarked that only 23 years elapsed from the occupation of the Hurriana country, when the lions, which were at one time in the dry and sandy deserts of the Mariana, became extinct south of the Currsnr. Having no inaccessible dens to retire to during the hot weather, the lions, from necessity, took up their abode where water could be found ; and as places of this description were rare, and gener ally near villages, their retreat was easily beaten up, and their entire destruction speedily effected. We •havo the evidence of Jahangir and the Rev. Edward Terry, that in their days the province of Malwa abounded with lions. Jahangir records that he bad killed several, and Mr. Terry mentions
his having been frequently terrified by them in his travels through the vast woods and wilder ness of the country. Bernier had frequent opportunities of witnessing the chase of this animal, an amusement which was reserved for the emperor Aurangzeb alone. Captain Postans ob served that while Kattyawar abounded with the tiger and lion species, Cutch, the neighbouring province, was free from them. The Times of India related how Lieut. Ilesdand, 56th Regiment, succeeded in killing 11 tigers, 2 lions, several ehectas, bears, and wild jungle boars ; and while stationed at Dessa, he shot three lions in one year. One of them, which measured some nine feet In length, had severely wounded Lieutenant Clarke of the R.A. some time in August. When the 3d Bombay Cavalry was stationed at Rajkote in Kattyawar (in 1832-33), Captains Reeves, Berry, and others of that regiment used to shoot lions on horseback. Major Fulljames turned out a lion from the Bhet (a sort of island in the Runn of Cutch), opposite the town of Junjuwara, in 1835, and followed it up to a place called Khura Sutta pur, on the southern border of the Runn, where he shot it ; and Colonel Le Grand Jacob, when First Assistant to the Political Agent in Katty awar, killed a lion and lioness in one day in the Geer jungle valley, in the southern part of Katty awar.
In the year 1862, a correspondent in the Times of India, writing of Kattyawar, says lions existed then in certain portions of this province, and in Gujerat also, on the range of hills near Deesa. The figure of a lion is on the top of each of the three tall pillars or columns at Bettia in North Berar. A lion was shot by Mr. Arratoon, a little before the appearance of the Asiatic lion in the Barah jungles. Colonel Clifton Benbow, of the Bombay Army, in his youth a great hunter of large game, with his companions hunted the lion in the Runn, by galloping at them and firing, but continuing to gallop on without pausing to see the effect of the shot,—each of the party acting simil arly until the lion fell.