THE LION 367 



With regard to the habits of lions, it is probable from the uniformly tawny 

 color of these animals that they were primitively inhabitants of more or less com- 

 pletely desert or sandy regions, although they are now by no means restricted to 

 such localities. In Africa, as Gordon Cumming relates, lions were formerly abun- 

 dant in the sandy wastes of the great Kalahari desert ; while they are now, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Selons, equally plentiful in the high open country of Mashonaland, 

 among the rough broken hills through which the tributaries of the Zambesi make 

 their way to the main river, in the dense thorn-jungles lying to the west of the 

 Gwai river, or in the marshes of the Linyanti river. Then again, whereas the 

 Indian lion was formerly abundant in the sandy plains of Rajputana, the favorite 

 haunts of the animal in Mesopotamia, are, as we have seen, in the swampy lowlands 

 of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. 



Like most of the larger cats, lions are essentialy nocturnal in their habits, and 

 they are thus frequently only met with by chance in districts where, from the 

 abundance of their tracks and from their nocturnal roarings, they are known to be 

 plentiful. During the daytime they are accustomed to lie asleep in thick beds of 

 reeds, where such are to be found, or, in drier districts, among thickets and bushes. 

 "The most likely places in the bush country in which to find lions," observes Mr. 

 Drummond, " as far as my experience goes, as the rekabee thorns, the dense ever- 

 greens which line the rivers, and, during summer, the reeds on the margins of 

 lagoons or streams, while in the open flats any patch of reeds or tall grass suffices 

 to conceal them. The best chances for killing them are obtained in the first- 

 mentioned spots, as you often come across them asleep when you are stealing about 

 after game." From these and similar haunts, the lion issues forth at sundown to 

 commence his nightly prowls ; dark and stormy nights, according to Gordon Cum- 

 ming, being those on which he is most active, while he is more cautious during 

 bright moonlight nights, especially as regards his visits to the drinking places. 



Unlike most of his congeners, the lion is not a climber, and this general 

 inability to ascend trees has saved the lives of many sportsmen and travelers, 

 although not unfrequently at the cost of a long and thirsty waiting. 



Mr. Blanford, who has had the opportunity of observing both lions and tigers 

 in their native haunts, is of the opinion that the former are bolder than. the latter, 

 while they are certainly far more noisy. When relating the results of his experi- 

 ences during the Abyssinian Expedition, he observes that " the first peculiarity that 

 struck me in the African lions was their noisiness. I have constantly been for 

 months together in countries in India abounding in tigers without hearing their cry. 

 Indeed, it is by no means a common sound in any Indian forest. Leopards, I should 

 say, are much more frequently heard than tigers. The cry of the two animals, 

 commonly known as roaring, though it is utterly different from the harsh growl of 

 anger to which the term might most appropriately be applied, is very similar, and 

 consists of several deep notes uttered rather quickly one after the other, and repeated 

 at longer and shorter intervals. ' ' 



Very different impressions appear to be produced on different persons by the 

 lion's roar, some listeners appearing to regard it as a rather commonplace and by no 

 means awe-inspiring sound, while others, and we believe the majority, speak of it in 



