THE LION 165 



a lioness on the Kapiti Plains in January, and another on 

 the upper Guaso Nyiro of the north about the first of June; 

 and in each there were in the immediate neighborhood 

 of the Utters of comparatively young cubs — three or four 

 months old — other young lions probably three or four 

 months older. This must mean that in East Africa litters 

 may be born at almost any season of the year. The lying-in 

 place of the lioness is sometimes in a cave, sometimes in 

 thick brush or long grass. Normally the cubs remain where 

 they were born for a few weeks, the mother leaving them to 

 hunt, and returning sometimes after an absence of forty- 

 eight hours; but they make no noise even when left thus 

 long. If game is abundant they may keep to the original 

 lair for several months, but if game is scarce, or for other 

 reasons, the lioness may shift her quarters when her young 

 ones are not much bigger than tom-cats, and the family 

 may then be seen travelling long distances until another 

 suitable place for a lair is reached. \/ When the cubs are three 

 months or so old, they habitually travel with the mother; 

 then, instead of eating her fill at a kill and afterward return- 

 ing to the cubs, the latter run up to the kill and feed at it 

 with their mother. We found flesh and hair in the stom- 

 achs of two cubs ; for they begin to eat flesh long before they 

 stop suckling. While still very young they try, in clumsy 

 fashion, to kill birds and small animals. By the time they 

 are four or five months old they sometimes endeavor to 

 assist the mother when she has pulled down some game 

 which is not formidable, but has not killed it outright be- 

 fore they come up; and soon afterward they begin to try 

 regularly to help her in killing, and they speedily begin to 

 help her in hunting and to attempt to hunt for themselves. 



