114 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



though the leopard also penetrates the deep forests in which 

 the lion does not dwell. In the reeds, the very cover sup^ 

 posed to be peculiarly fitted to the tiger's coloration, both 

 lion and leopard are practically invisible; for in such cover 

 it is the physical screen of the cover and the habits of the 

 big cats that are practically the sole causes of their invisi- 

 bility. The lion's coat is supposed to have been developed 

 to suit the open country; but a leopard in the grass, under 

 the flood of bright light, is at least as difficult to see as a 

 small lioness and more difficult to see than a black-maned 

 lion. This we can testify from our own observations in the 

 field. In the sun-flecked or uniformly dark shade of the 

 bush or tree cover there was again no difference perceptible 

 in the average visibility of the coloration; if anything, the 

 leopard's coat was just a trifle less concealing. But the 

 difference, one way or the other, was wholly unimportant. 

 The leopard was smaller than the lion, was even more cau- 

 tious and wary, and was an even greater adept in stealthy, 

 sinuous crawling and hiding; and therefore it was, on the 

 whole, harder to see, whether in grass-land or bush. 



The contrast between the two big cats and the game on 

 which they preyed, under like conditions, showed the utter 

 unimportance of color compared to habit. There were in 

 places enormous stretches of flat country covered with grass 

 a couple of feet tall more or less, either entirely treeless or 

 very thinly studded with occasional thorn-trees. Every 

 zebra, eland, wildebeest, hartebeest, topi, roan, oryx, kob, 

 waterbuck, or big gazelle, and, of course, every giraffe and 

 rhinoceros, in such a stretch, was visible; the animal made 

 no attempt to avoid observation and no attempt to crouch 

 and hide when it discerned danger. But if, as often hap- 



