[1658] Pliny’s account is from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 45, but, as is often the case, with considerable exaggerations. Aristotle says, that these animals eject their excrements to a distance of four feet, and that it is of so acrid a nature, as to cause the hair of the dog to fall off. The word jugerum is generally used as a measure of superficial surface.—B.
[1659] Pliny here renders the Greek πλέθρον, by “jugerum,” which is ordinarily a measure of superficies. In the present case, therefore, it must mean a measure of length, of 100 Grecian, or 104 Roman feet.
[1660] The pard of Pliny, as we shall find stated below, is the male of the panther.
[1661] Cuvier remarks, that all the feline animals have retractile claws, drawn by an elastic ligament into a sheath, and protruded when required for the purpose of prehension. The sheath is formed of a duplicature or fold of the skin and the subjacent cellular membrane.—B.
[1662] What Pliny states here, is without foundation. He supposes that the leopard is the produce of a pard, or male panther, and the female of the lion; but this is incorrect, the leopard being a distinct species of animal.—B.
[1663] Herodotus, B. iii. c. 108, gives the same account, which is refuted by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 31. Aulus Gellius, B. xiii. c. 7, refers to Herodotus, and the refutation by Aristotle.—B.
[1664] The account here given of the lioness generally, Aristotle gives respecting the Syrian lioness only, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 31; there is some reason to believe that Aristotle is not correct in what he says. The account given by Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. iv. c. 33, is nearly the same with that of Pliny.—B.
[1665] There is much in this account that is incorrect. It is well ascertained that the cubs of the lion are proportionably as large and as perfectly formed as the young of other animals that belong to the same family.—B.
[1666] Herodotus, B. vii. c. 126, and Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 28, give a similar account of the district in which lions are found.—B. Littré remarks, that this statement of Pliny is probably formed, as originally suggested by M. Maury, upon the fact, that the lions of Europe, as we learn from Herodotus, attacked the camels of Xerxes, on his invasion of Europe.
[1667] Cuvier remarks, that we have no knowledge of the lion with curled hair, so frequently spoken of by the ancients. He suggests that there may have been a peculiar variety between the rivers Achelous and Nestus or Mestus, or perhaps, more probably, that it was altogether imaginary. He states also, that we no longer see lions without manes, but that Olivier had seen some at Bagdat. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 44, speaks of the two species of lions, and describes them nearly as Pliny has done.—B.