EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM. 163 



these cases evidently afford instances of polygamy. Two or three lionesses sometimes 

 live in companionship, with perhaps the cubs of one or more of them; and a single 

 lioness may be found either by herself or with the cubs of one litter, or of two litters. 

 On one occasion we found a lioness associating with a young male, not yet quite fully 

 grown but already much bigger than she was, and a couple of young cubs perhaps two 

 or thi-ee months old; now, from information given us by the natives, we are inclined 

 to think (although, of course, we are. not certain) that the young male was one of her 

 cubs of a former litter, and the father of the cubs that were with them. Finally, it 

 may happen that lions join temporarily in larger parties, which may contain two or 

 three adult males, several females, and young animals of various ages; but we are 

 inclined to believe that these associations are short-lived, being due to peculiar con- 

 ditions, such as great local abundance of game — for lions often hunt together in order 

 to profit by mutual support. * * * 



Lions do not go into heavy forests, althoiigh they make their day lairs along the 

 edges. They like to lie up for the day in patches of jungle which border on open 

 plains; in bushes in open scrub; in clumps of reeds; in any thick bit of cover in the 

 open thorn forests which are so plentiful in much of the game country; and perhaps 

 especially in a strip of cover along a river, or one of the dense masses of brush and 

 trees, of small extent, which are found along the watercourses. They also lie in tall 

 grass. Occasionally they lie, throughout the day, right out in the open, on a mound 

 or the side of an ant-hill, or under a low bush or tree that does not shield them from 

 sight. If the gi-ass is very tall they find it easy to get close to their prey and to evade 

 human observation; and where the brush is thick or the open forest fairly continuous 

 it is almost a chance if one comes on them. If much molested they become strictly 

 noctiunal; otherwise, under more natural conditions, although they spend most of 

 the day sleeping, they may sometimes be seen leisurely strolling in the open, and they 

 often retm'n to their resting-places after sunrise, and leave them before sunset — 

 although even under such circumstances it is only exceptionally that they hunt except 

 under cover of darkness. Once we came on a big male lion in mid-afternoon walk- 

 ing back across the open plain to a zebra he had killed on the previous night ; and once, 

 at the same time of day, we came on a lioness leading her cubs back to the carcass of a 

 wildebeest, also slain over night. On another afternoon we came across a Hon and 

 lioness gazing intently at an old bull wildebeest which was returning their stare, very 

 much on the alert, at a distance of sixty yards. 



For measurements of specimens see tables, pages 166-169. 



FELIS LEO NYANZ^ Heller. 



1910. Felis Zeo mossaica Roosevelt, Afr. Game Trails, Amer. ed., p. 476; London 

 ed., p. 487. (Part.) 



1913. Felis leo nyanzx Heller, Smithsonian Msc. Coll., vol. 61, No. 19, p. 4. 



November 8. (Kampala, Uganda; type in U. S. Nat. Mus.) 



1914. Felis leo nyanzx Roosevelt and Heller, Life Hist. Afr. Game Animals, 



vol. 1, p. 226. 

 1917. Felis leo nyanzx Hollister, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 53, p. 183. June 1. 



Specimens. — Forty, from the following localities: 



Uganda: Kampala, 1, the type (T. Roosevelt). 



British East Africa: Kabalolot Hill, Sotik, 6 (Rainey); Lime 

 Springs, Sotik, 5 (Rainey, Johnston); Loita Plains, 9 (Rainey, 

 Heller, Johnston); Njoro OsolaU, Sotik, 2 (T. Roosevelt, K. Roose- 

 velt) ; Southern Guaso Njdro River, 6 (T. Roosevelt, Loring, Mearns) ; 

 Telek River, 7 (Rainey, Johnston, Heller). 



