MY FIRST LION gi 
the tell-tale earth you see where one, two, sometimes many 
lions, lionesses, and cubs, drew the fatal circle round them. 
The little knot of zebra burst forth in all directions, scatter- 
ing like an exploded shell, and here one of them racing for 
dear life, has been stricken down; here the soft paws of the 
lion bite into the ground, and the deep indentations tell their 
own story of his rush and spring. A few yards away lie 
the remains of his prey, killed with scarcely a struggle by 
one bite back of the ears, or, if as is sometimes the case, 
the lion has missed his spring, the zebra hoofs cut deep into 
the soil as he rushes away, and the lion’s stride shortens at 
once, and the tracks swing back to those of the band. Zebra 
are his favourite game. ‘They are fat, and seemingly easier 
to stampede and pull down than waterbuck, Kongoni or 
eland. But strange things happen in the to us so little 
understood animal world. Even in places where game is 
very abundant, and the lions fat and flourishing, I have 
found a lion ‘“‘kill,” where, disdaining zebra or kongoni, 
his majesty deigned to eat up a cheetah (A cheetah, is first 
cousin to the leopard, more lightly built and much faster, 
claws non-retractile, spots solid black not like those of the 
leopard black but circular, skin much lighter). I have 
known a lion that had well feasted on an elephant, finish off 
his repast by eating almost an entire hyena, the iast sort of 
a dish you would think he would choose. ‘This hyena was 
not eaten by his own kith and kin, but by a lion, and while 
unlimited elephant meat, of which lions are very fond was 
lying within a few feet. There often seems to be as little 
sense displayed by lions hunting, as there is poor discern- 
ment shown by them in their gastronomy. H. of whom I 
speak later, who has killed many lions and is what very 
few professional hunters are, observant, saw four lions try- 
to stalk a band of waterbuck in broad daylight. It was after 
nine o'clock. The great antelope simply played with their 
enemies, would let the crouching hunters come as near as 
