Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/339

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LINZ. 303 LION. eiiiia. Population, in 18'JO, 47,685; in 1900, 58,778. Linz was the Roman camp Lentia. LINZ, Amelie ( 1824-1904 ) . A German author, born at Bamberg. She married an officer of engineers, and four years after his death ( 1870) settled at Munich. Her literary work, published under the name Amelie Godin, includes the nov- els: Eine Kataslruphe (1802); t'rauenliebc und Lehen (1874) ; (iriifin Leotwre (1882) ; freudroll viid U-idcoll (1883); and Dctm Ileval (1901); and several collections of fairy-tales, such as Miirchen von einer Mutter erduchi (4th ed. 1800) ; Grosses Mdrchenbuch (4th ed. 1886); Marchen- kranz (2d ed. 1890) ; and others. LION (AS. Ico, OF. lion, leon, Fr. lion. It. leone, Hone, from Lat. leo, from Gk. X^uv, leon, lion ) . The most famous of the great cats ( Fclis leo), and distinguished from all others by its mane and the hairy tuft at the end of the tail. It inhabits Africa and Southwestern Asia. A lion of large size stands three feet high, and measures about nine and one-half feet from the nose to the tip of the tail, which is about three feet long; but most specimens fall short of these figures. The greatest size seems to be attained in South Africa. The weight rarely reaches 500 pounds. The skull of an adult may measure 1.3 inches in length, and OVj inches in breadth across the cheek - bones. In accordance with its de.sert life, its col- or is a uniform pale tawny, some- times reddish, and occasionally almost black. Though never streaked or spotted, the mane is frequently darker than the coat, or even diversified with blackish patches. Kittens are obscurel.y spotted and striped at first, as is the case with other concolorous species of groups generally spotted, but this disappears after a few months. The lioness is somewhat smaller than the lion, and has no mane — nor have young males. Some- times they never acquire more than a scanty orna- ment of this kind, but the so-called 'maneless lion of Gujarat' seems not to exist as a separate race. There is, however, great diversity in this feature, as in color, even within the same litter. The mane is evidently a sexual ornament, and also a shield, which offers/ so7iie protection to the males in the combats which occur in this species more frequently and with more fierceness than in the ease of any other wild cat of which we know. The whole frame is extremely muscu- lar, and the fore parts in particular are remark- ably powerful, giving, with the large head and copious mane, a noble appearance to the animal, which, with its strength and its appalling voice, has led to its being called the 'king of beasts.' The accompanying nobility of character which has been ascribed to it by BufTon and his follow- ers seems, however, largely fanciful. Habitat. In the time preceding the Glacial Epoch, lions, indistinguishable by their remains, entombed in the floors of caves, from modern forms, roamed over all Southern Europe. Ger- many. France, and the British Isles. They seem TEETH OF THE LION. Permanent dentition: i, incisors: c. canines; />, itremolars; m, molars. In the upper jaw p^ is the upper carnassial, and in the lower jaw w indicates the lower carnassial tooth. to have been exterminated in the North and West by the glacial cold, but survived in ^^outlleastern Europe well into historic times, for the Romans knew of them anciently in what is now Rumania, Greece, and European Turkey; and still more re- cently they have existed in Syria and Arabia. These animals probably were driven away by man. They were also formerly nimierous from the Caucasus to Afghanistan and Baluchistan; but are now scarce and local in Asia, extinct in Asia llinor, Arabia, and Eg^pt, and have nearly or quite disappeared from Algeria. In Asia they were formerly abundant on the sandy wastes of Rajputana and the high plains of Persia, but now have almost or quite disap- peared from India, and are confined to the swamjjy lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, and certain valleys east of the Persian Gulf; in Africa they are to be found in the naked deserts of the Southern Sahara, the Kalihari Desert, and the Abyssinian regions, as well as among the rough hills of Maslionaland and the dense swamps of the Upper Nile tributaries. Everywhere, during the day, they are likely to hide and sleep in secluded clusters of brush- grown rocks, thickets of thorny bushes, or patches of reeds or tall grass with the color of which their 3-ellow coats are perfectly in ac- cord. It is in such haunts and in the spring that the whel]js are born. I'sually there are three young, and rarely are more than five pro- duced. They are boni with their eyes open (the pupils are round). Although during the pairing season the lioness apparently delights in provoking jealous combats for her favors, by which the weaker members of the race are con- tinually 'weeded out' and onl}' the strongest survive to produce ofi'spring (see Sexual Selec- tion), she makes u devoted mother, and the male stays with his family and assists in supplying their wants until the young are well grown. It is said that old lions of unusual strength are often polygamous: and it is also asserted that ordinarily the same mates keep together for sev- eral successive seasons, or for life. Probably both assertions are true; likely it is also true that other pairs change annually. Where the animals are or were very numerous, polygamy and frequent change of mate would he likely to happen more often than where they were few and the range of choice correspondingly limited. No young lion can get a mate, nor an old one keep her, where others are about, except by fight- ing. Where lions luive not been much disturbed by guns they are likely to be seen abroad and hunt- ing in the daytime, sometimes in small family troops, but elsewhere, and generally, they prowl and hunt at night. Though able to gallop swiftly for a short distance, their weight and their feline nature Incline them to adopt stealthy approach or ambush in their hunting. They are unable to climb trees, but are nimble enough in scrambling about rocks. Knowing the habits of the animals they seek, they wait beside their paths or at their drinking-places. or skillfully stalk them in the open, depending as nuich, probably, on their eyesight as on their faculty of scent. What they eat depends upon where they live. In India deer, antelopes, wild boars, and lesser wild animals are largely supplemented by domestic or semi- domestic cattle, goats, pigs, ponies, camels, and an occasional Hindu. In Mesopotamia the lions