THE LION 167 



us by the natives, we are inclined to think (although, of 

 course, we are not certain) that the young male was one of 

 her cubs of a former litter, and the father of the cubs that 

 were with them. Finally, it may happen that lions join 

 temporarily in larger parties, which may contain two or 

 three adult males, several females, and young animals of 

 various ages; but we are inclined to believe that these asso- 

 ciations are short-lived, being due to peculiar conditions, 

 such as great local abundance of game — for lions often hunt 

 together in order to profit by mutual support. 



Lions are noisy animals where they have not been much 

 molested; but, for some reason or other, if they are so 

 hunted that their numbers are much thinned, the survivors 

 seem to roar less frequently than formerly. The roaring is 

 done at night; but once in the Lado we heard a lion roar 

 after sunrise. There is no grander sound in nature than the 

 roaring of a troop of lions. The old male begins, and the 

 others chime in, at first with low moans that grow louder 

 and louder until the full-lunged roaring can literally be 

 heard for miles; then the roars gradually die away into 

 gasping grunts. The volume of sound is extraordinary and 

 cannot possibly be mistaken for any other noise if reason- 

 ably close; but, of course, if far enough distant it becomes 

 only partially audible, and may then resemble the booming 

 of an ostrich heard near by ; and in thick cover the grunt or 

 growl of a lion, indistinctly heard, may be mistaken for the 

 grunt of a buffalo or the occasional growl — I know no other 

 word to describe the sound — of an elephant, a beast which 

 sometimes utters the queerest and most unexpected noises. 

 It has been asserted that the lion never roars when hungry, 

 because to do so would frighten his prey, and that this roar- 



