Ill HOW A LION KILLS 63 



would very likely have pursued and killed it. 

 Fortunately, neither my oxen nor my horses showed 

 much fear on this occasion, and although the former 

 pulled a bit, they did not break their thongs, and 

 we soon quieted them and then built up some big 

 fires. The lions passed on up the little river near 

 which we were camped, and before long began to 

 roar loudly, a pretty good sign, I think, that they 

 had already dined and were not hunting. Why, 

 when a family of four or five lions are hunting 

 together, one of their number being an old male, 

 they should kill an ox so much less artistically than 

 the old male would have done, if he had been alone, 

 I do no know. Possibly the eagerness of each 

 member of the party renders a scientific attack by 

 any one of them impossible, or perhaps the older 

 lions allow the younger ones to do the killing for 

 practice. There is no doubt, I think, that lions 

 know that the head, throat, and the back of the 

 neck are the most vital spots in all animals on 

 which they prey. Human beings are nearly always 

 seized by the head or neck ; horses, donkeys, and 

 zebras are almost invariably killed by bites in the 

 back of the neck just behind the ears, or by bites in 

 the throat ; whilst they either dislocate the necks of 

 heavy animals like buffaloes, or hold them in such 

 a way that they can hardly help falling and break- 

 ing their own necks. The lion which broke the 

 neck of one of my oxen, as I have described above, 

 escaped punishment when it returned to the carcase 

 the following evening owing to my rifle missing fire. 

 It then visited a mining camp close at hand, and 

 forcing its way into an enclosure in which there 

 were fourteen sheep and goats and one calf, it 

 killed every one of these unfortunate animals. I 

 shot this lion early the following morning and then 

 examined its victims. Every one of them, the calf 

 as well as the sheep and goats, had been killed by 



