THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



of its " baby " with such speed that, before the Hon could 

 jump up, it was caught on the horns of the buffalo and 

 tossed many feet into the air. No sooner had the lion 

 touched the ground than the angry mother was at it again, 

 and although the big cat succeeded in cutting some terrible 

 gashes on the neck of its assailant with its claws, and 

 actually bit off half its nose, yet it was finally crushed to 

 death by the horns of the buffalo. As soon as the lion 

 was dead the cow stood bleeding and trembling over the 

 dead body of its offspring, until the cruel but delighted 

 Wandorobos shot it with their poisoned arrows, and so 

 put an end to its sufferings. 



When the lion kills big game single-handed it does it 

 generally in the following way: It first stalks its prey, 

 until it is so close that a few mighty leaps will bring it up 

 alongside the same. Then it suddenly seizes the victim's 

 nose with one of its mighty paws, while with the other 

 it catches hold of the back of the animal, and so in an 

 instant pulls the head sideways and downward with such 

 force as almost invariably to break its neck at once, or 

 else gives the beast a tremendous bite at the back of the 

 head, which instantly kills it. Sometimes the lion begins 

 its meal by tearing its prey open, first drinking the blood 

 and eating heart and lungs, before it begins on the rest 

 of the body, but it often prefers starting with the hind- 

 quarters. 



Very often the lion simply lies in hiding near some 

 water hole or drinking place in a stream, near enough to 

 reach its prey with a single mighty swoop. It seems very 

 strange that herds of zebra, for instance, will night after 

 night go down to the very same watering place to drink, 



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