THE FLESH-EATERS 37 



beasts ; they can hide themselves in a place incredibly 

 small ; and from the stony nature of much of their 

 habitat they are extremely hard to spoor. 



Although, as I have said, leopards are abundant 

 all over Africa, they are, from their extreme reluctance 

 to show themselves, bagged surprisingly seldom, even 

 by experienced hunters. Usually they are shot in a 

 purely chance encounter, springing up from bush or 

 long grass, or from the well-clothed banks of some 

 periodical water-course. Occasionally, like the lion, 

 they may be surprised at a kill, and the sportsman, 

 returning to look after some head of game shot the 

 day before, may meet with one of these handsome 

 carnivora, though the chance is a less probable one 

 than that of meeting a lion in country where lions 

 exist. Occasionally, in the bushbuck drives carried 

 out periodically in the dense bush-country of the 

 maritime regions of Eastern Cape Colony and 

 KafFraria, a leopard, pushed accidentally towards the 

 gunner by the Kaffir beaters, is killed with a charge of 

 buck-shot " loopers," as these missiles are called in 

 the Old Colony. A friend of the writer, the late Mr. 

 Fred. Lockner, one of the best sportsmen and shots 

 in South Africa, who died untimely in Mashonaland, 

 once killed a leopard with a single charge of No. 5 

 shot. The beast, attracted by the smell of game 

 meat, which was hanging about the camp, crept up 

 one evening as the party were sitting near the camp 

 fire, and, standing up on its hind legs, began to 

 claw down a piece of flesh. Lockner was quick as 

 lightning in his movements, and, instantly picking up 



