CHAPTER V 



NOTES ON THE LION (cOflchided) 



Method of opening a carcase — Removal of paunch and entrails — 

 Lions skilful butchers — Paunch and entrails not usually eaten — 

 Lions not bone-eaters — Will eat putrid meat — Will sometimes 

 devour their own kind — Number of cubs at birth — Check on 

 inordinate increase of carnivorous animals — The lion's roar — 

 Diversity of opinion concerning its power — Probable explana- 

 tion — Volume of sound when several lions roar in unison — A 

 nerve-shaking experience — Lions silent when approaching their 

 prey — Roar after killing — And in answer to one another — 

 Lions only roar freely in undisturbed districts — Lions essentially 

 game-killers — But change their habits with circumstances — 

 Killing lions with spear and shield — Bambaleli's splendid 

 courage — Lions killed by Bushmen with poisoned arrows — 

 Behaviour of domestic animals in the presence of lions — Cattle 

 sometimes terrified, at other times show no fear. 



When once a lion or lions have killed an animal 

 they almost always open the carcase at the point 

 where the skin is thinnest, that is, in the flank just 

 in front of where the thigh joins the belly. They 

 then at once tear off and eat this thin skin and the 

 flesh attached to it, and all the skin and flesh 

 covering the paunch and entrails, which latter they 

 then proceed to remove from the carcase. The 

 neatness and cleanliness with which lions can take 

 the inside out of an animal they have just killed 

 has always struck me as little short of marvellous. 

 Every one who has had to do much cutting up of 

 large animals knows how easy it is to tear the skin 

 of the paunch and get some of its contents on the 



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