70 SOUTH AFRICA]^ MAMMALS 



larger game, mainly antelopes of all kinds, but also 

 includes zebras, giraffes, and buffaloes. They will kill 

 the donkeys and cattle belonging to prospecting and 

 hunting parties, and will raid Kaffir kraals when driven 

 to it by hunger. Man-eating lions are generally old 

 animals with bad teeth. They usually drink in the 

 evening between sunset and 10 p.m. Their call is the 

 well-known and awe-inspiring roar, but the lion also 

 emits a kind of coughing grunt. Two to four cubs are 

 born during the months of November to March. The 

 period of gestation, as first observed by Bartlett in the 

 London Zoo, and verified by me in the Pretoria Zoo, is 

 sixteen weeks. The lion is easily tamed, and forms, 

 with the Bengal tiger, one of the chief attractions of a 

 circus or menagerie. The lion has also been crossed with 

 the tiger, the cubs being very pretty animals. 



Lions are, however — like most of the cat tribe — of 

 uncertain temper, although less treacherous than most 

 felines. Two cubs born in the Pretoria Zoo were, when 

 young, quite devoid of any fear for human beings, making 

 no attempt to run aw^ay when approached, and they had 

 finally to be lifted up and carried from one cage to 

 another, refusing to be scared thither by sticks and 

 shouts. The eyes of the two cubs were open on the 

 sixth day. A fine lion in our collection is very tame, and 

 usually comes for a caress when called. The collection 

 also contains an interesting and much travelled old 

 lioness. This animal (*' Beauty " by name) was given by 

 the late Cecil John Rhodes to the President of the 

 South African Eepublic (the late Paul Kruger), but was 

 returned to the donor, who then sent her to the London 

 Zoo. After the Boer War the Zoological Society, upon 

 being informed of the existence of the then embryo Zoo 

 in Pretoria, kindly sent "Beauty" out again, and she 



