166 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



Evidently In their first attempts they claw and bite their 

 prey everywhere ; for we found carcasses of zebra and harte- 

 beest thus killed by family parties which were scarred all 

 over. V 



Lions are sometimes monogamous and sometimes polyg- 

 amous, and there Is much variety In the way they conduct 

 their family life. It is a common thing for an old male 

 to be found alone, and It Is no less common for two adult 

 males to be found In company, living and hunting together; 

 the two famous man-eaters of Tsavo, which for a time put a 

 complete stop to the building of the Uganda Railroad, were 

 in the latter category. A lion and a lioness are often found 

 together, and in such case a strong attachment may be 

 shown between them, and the union be apparently perma- 

 nent; at least this would seem to be the case from the fact 

 that such pairs will often remain together just before the 

 birth of the cubs and while the latter are very little, the 

 lion lying up during the day in the neighborhood of his mate 

 and her litter. But it is a frequent thing to find a party of 

 lions consisting of one old male, of two or three or four 

 females, and of the cubs of some of the latter; and these 

 parties are well known to the Ukamba and 'Ndorobo hunt- 

 ers, and their association is permanent, so that these cases 

 evidently afford instances of polygamy. Two or three lion- 

 esses sometimes live in companionship, with perhaps the 

 cubs of one or more of them; and a single lioness maybe 

 found either by herself or with the cubs of one litter, or of 

 two litters. On one occasion we found a lioness associating 

 with a young male, not yet quite fully grown but already 

 much bigger than she was, and a couple of young cubs per- 

 haps two or three months old; now, from Information given 



