368 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



were to windward ; and we have seen a flock of the usually- 

 tame Tommy gazelles run off in alarm, while a solitary- 

 wildebeest bull, which was with them and was usually 

 far more shy than they were, displayed no emotion what- 

 ever about our presence. 



We came across many carcasses of wildebeests that had 

 been killed by lions, and we never saw any more signs of a 

 struggle than with zebra or hartebeest. Doubtless they 

 are sometimes killed near water, but all those whose bodies 

 we saw had been killed in the open plain during the night. 

 Evidently the lion had either stalked them or had lain 

 motionless until, as they grazed or walked toward new feed- 

 ing-grounds, they approached him. In one or two cases 

 the marks showed that the lion had struck the claws of 

 one paw into the wildebeest's head to hold him, a favorite 

 trick of the lion with heavy or formidable game. In some 

 cases the wildebeest had been seized on a flat, bare plain 

 without a vestige of cover, the grass being cropped short. 

 It was extraordinary that even in darkness so wary a beast 

 should let so big a foe approach to within a few yards. 

 Probably in such cases it was the wildebeest itself that ap- 

 proached, the lion's sinuous length being moulded along the 

 ground, in the darkness, until the munching, grass-cropping 

 herd walked slowly within reach of his tremendous rush — 

 for a lion's furious dash, whether on prey or foe, is much 

 more apt to be a rush than a spring. Doubtless in the lion's 

 hunting at night — his regular hunting time — smell counts 

 for much more than sight in guiding him to his prey; 

 details like the prey's color are of no consequence what- 

 ever; his eyes are required chiefly to guide him in the 

 actual grapple. 



