A NEW BEAST OF PREY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 223, 13 June 1908, Page 12

A NEW BEAST OF PREY.

REMARKABLE ADDITION TO THE ZOO COLLECTION. Once more Africa has yielded something new and exceeding strange. Mr. J. D. Hamlyn, the well-known animal dealer, of St. Gecrge's Street East, London, has received from a correspondent on the Congo one of the most extraordinary feline animals ever seen. It has been said that it is a new species, with affinities to the lion on the one side, and to the leopard on the other. Against this view must bo set the fact that this appears to be the only individual of the kind over met with, and it is exceedingly doubtful if a new species would have escaped observation for so\long. . A much more probable view is that which regards it as a wild-bred hybrid between a lioness and one of the largo spotted cats. In its travelling-box in Mr. Hamlyn's yard tho animal, a femalo, could scarcely be seen to' advantago. When viewed directly from the front, tho hoad distinctly recalled that of a lioness, but when seen from the side the spots, arrangod liko those of no known sppcies, at onco attractod attention. In size sho fnay bo compared to a nearly full-grown lioness, with a rufous tingo on the coat, moro liko the huo of tho cheetah than that of tho leopard. On tho hind quarters tho spots are largo, and diminish in size towards tne foroquarters, and on the face, with tho .exception of the nose, there is a thick crop of small dark marks. The undor surface is whitish, also marked with spots. The tail is not tufted, as in the lion; for the greater part of its length it is of the body colour, with indistinct blotches, and tho terminal portion is banded with black and white. Something has been said about this being a spotted lion, but the markings of this animal differ "entirely from the spots of immaturity that are sometimes retained, .especially by females, for a long period.