176 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



— ^we think, but of course cannot be certain, that this was 

 the way she was killed. With none of these game, not even 

 the plucky oryx and wildebeest, did we find the slightest 

 evidence of resistance or of anything in the nature of a fight. 

 The oryx is said at times to defend itself against the lion; 

 but although along the Guaso Nyiro of the north we came 

 on a number of oryx kills, we never saw one instance in which 

 there had been more than the usual scuffle. Evidently the 

 surprise had been complete, and the sudden rush and im- 

 mense strength and ferocity of the assailant had left no 

 time for resistance. Young and clumsy lions, or very old 

 and weak lions with poor teeth, may occasionally meet with 

 misadventures in tackling a big zebra or antelope; but in 

 East and Middle Africa, of the animals habitually preyed on 

 by full-grown lions in their prime, only the buff^alo are dan- 

 gerous to them. Lions kill camels, horses, donkeys, cattle, 

 sheep, poat, and tame ostriches; but where zebra and harte- 

 beest swarm, as in much of East Africa, they find it so easy 

 to catch them that, as a rule, they do not seriously interfere 

 with the flocks and herds of the natives and settlers. But 

 even under these circumstances an occasional lion will take 

 to cattle-killing and to ravaging the flocks of tame ostriches. 

 Ordinarily in killing their prey, lions keep their hind feet on 

 the ground ; but in one case where a horse was killed the lion 

 leaped on its back; the hoof-prints showed that the horse had 

 run for sixty yards or so before falling, and during this dis- 

 tance not a paw of the lion had touched earth. The marks 

 on the dead horse showed that the lion's hind claws had dug 

 deep into the haunches, while the fore-paws grasped the 

 shoulders, and the teeth bit into the neck until the bone was 

 crushed. 



