THE LION— KING OF BEASTS 



rarely finds the great feline, the appetite of which seems 

 tremendous. It is said by prominent African hunters, and 

 corroborated by the natives themselves, that, where game 

 is plentiful, an adult lion kills a good-sized animal almost 

 every night. In places where it has not been much shot at, 

 the lion sometimes hunts even in the daytime, if it, for 

 some reason, failed to secure its prey the night before. 

 This I myself firmly believe, for the first lion I ever killed 

 had just slain a zebra, which it was devouring, when a 

 good Winchester bullet, at close quarters, intercepted the 

 meal ; and this happened about ten o'clock in the morning 

 of a perfectly bright day and right on the Athi plains, only 

 a few miles from Nairobi. 



As a rule the lion hunts just after sunset, when it can 

 more easily stalk its prey unobserved. Its favorite food 

 seems to be zebra meat, but any good-sized antelope will 

 do just as well if, for any reason, a zebra cannot be secured. 

 There have been instances, although they are probably 

 very rare, where a lion has stalked even a full-grown buf- 

 falo, but only extreme lack of other food would make 

 the lion bold enough to attack such a powerful animal, 

 which certainly has many times over the strength of the 

 lion. 



On the foothills of Kenia I was once told by some 

 Wandorobo, the wildest and most primeval natives of 

 British East Africa, who also are, as a rule, the best 

 trackers and pathfinders in the jungle, that they had once 

 witnessed a fight between a lion and a full-grown buffalo 

 cow. The lion had just sprung upon its calf and killed it, 

 when the infuriated mother suddenly appeared on the 

 scene, and, with lowered horns, rushed at the murderer 



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