168 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



ing is a sign that he is full-fed. This sounds plausible; and 

 yet, as a matter of fact, we doubt if it is true. Undoubtedly, 

 after a successful chase lions roar freely; we have most often 

 heard them between midnight and morning. But we have 

 also heard regular roaring — not mere moaning, or the pant- 

 ing noise occasionally indulged in by a hungry, questing 

 beast — soon after dark, and this was persevered in at inter- 

 vals for an hour or so. We are inclined to think that gen- 

 erally lions are silent until they have killed, but that 

 occasionally, whether as signals to one another or from mere 

 pride and overbearing insolence, they roar at intervals on 

 their way through the darkness from their resting-place to 

 their hunting field. Of course, when they reach the actual 

 place where they are to hunt they become quiet; unless they 

 deliberately try to stampede the animals by roaring, or 

 unless several are hunting together, spread out around a 

 herd of zebra or antelope, when one may roar or grunt to 

 scare the animals toward the others. Ordinarily lions make 

 no sound that can alarm their prey; yet even when actually 

 hunting an occasional hungry lion may utter a kind of sigh 

 or moan, an eerie sound when heard close by in the pitchy 

 darkness. On rare occasions a lioness deprived of her cubs 

 or one of a pair of lions whose mate has been shot will roar 

 savagely after nightfall, perhaps in the neighborhood where 

 the loss occurred, or perhaps while travelling about. Old 

 males may roar again and again in answer to one another 

 as if challenging; and if one party begins to roar it will 

 often bring an answer from any lion within hearing. At 

 bay a lion utters a continuous growling, broken by muttered 

 roars; and he grunts loudly as he charges. When disturbed 

 a lion grunts as he gallops away. 



