46 MY SOMALI BOOK 



lesser bustard that was abundant in the Haud ; a 

 plaintive single note rather like the cheep of a turkey 

 chick. This species was rather larger than the one I 

 had found at Mandera and, unlike the latter, had a 

 black breast. 



Followed another strenuous though unsuccessful 

 day. The tracks of a lion and lioness appeared in 

 the morning just outside our zariba, and we found 

 that one of them had lain down during the night onl}^ 

 a few feet from the fence, but on the opposite side 

 from that where the donkej^ was tied uj). They had 

 not made a circuit of the zariba as they often do, and 

 apparently had not seen him. We took up the trail 

 at 6.30 a.m. and, as before, the lion soon separated 

 from his mate. For eight hours we followed him 

 without success. My luck was out in two respects. 

 To begin with, the lion would in the ordinary course 

 have lain up in a shady spot before the sun began to 

 get hot and we should, with any luck, have come up 

 with him by midday at latest. But unfortunately 

 it was a cloudy, cool da}^, with practically no sun 

 at all until after one o'clock ; so the lion, who had not 

 dined, had kept on ; and we had to keep on too. He 

 probably would not have gone so far, cool as it was, 

 except that he remembered (as it turned out) a place 

 where he had killed an oryx three or four days earlier, 

 and thought he might as well go on and see if there 

 were any fragments from that meal remaining. About 

 2 p.m. we came upon the signs of the tragedy ; also 

 unfortunately found that two lions had visited the spot 

 the day before, there were consequently quite a number 

 of lions' *' pugs " fresh and stale about the spot. 



