86 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



meat, and African natives are nearly always very 

 clumsy and dirty in this respect. Lions, however, 

 are able to remove the paunch and entrails from 

 the carcase of a large animal as skilfully as a trained 

 butcher. The offal itself is dragged away to a 

 distance of ten yards or so, and then covered with 

 earth or grass, which is scratched up and thrown 

 over it. As a rule, lions certainly do not eat the 

 paunch and entrails of any animals which they may 

 kill, but I once had occasion to search through a 

 refuse-heap left by a party of lions near the carcase 

 of a buffalo they had killed, in the hope of finding 

 some scavenger beetles of a rare species, and I 

 found that it contained nothing but vegetable matter 

 — the contents of the buffalo's stomach. If the lions 

 had not eaten the entrails and the covering of the 

 paunch, I do not know what had become of them. 

 This refuse-heap as usual had been thickly covered 

 with earth and grass, which had been scratched up 

 from all around it. Once the inside of a carcase 

 has been removed, the liver, kidneys, heart, and 

 lungs are eaten, with all the fat adhering to them. 

 Then the carcase is again torn open at the anus, 

 and the soft meat of the buttocks is devoured in 

 great lumps, which are swallowed whole with the 

 skin attached. No lion will ever scrunch up heavy 

 bones like a hysena, but should he kill an animal 

 in good condition, he will swallow all the com- 

 paratively soft bones of the brisket, and also gnaw 

 off the ends of all the rib-bones. The idea that 

 lions will not eat the flesh of any animal which they 

 have not killed themselves is quite erroneous. It 

 would, indeed, be more correct to say that as long 

 as lions can find dead animals to eat, they will not 

 take the trouble to hunt. Nor are they at all 

 particular as to the condition of any carcase they 

 may chance to come across. As long as there is 

 any meat left on it, they will eat it, and I have 



