34 THE LION. 



The lion in the Cape Colony, and other more in- 

 habited parts of Southern Africa, frequently as 

 shewn carries, or drags, his prey to a considerable 

 distance before devouring it ; but in the interior of 

 the country, where the population is scanty, and 

 the beast subject to but little molestation, he, for 

 the most part, either feasts on it where it fell, or 

 removes it to some thicket in the immediate vicinity ; 

 and after he has satisfied his hunger for the time 

 being, which with a half-famished lion occupies 

 no little time, he either crouches beside it, or in 

 some retired spot near at hand. " Here," according 

 to Delegorgue, " he keeps guard over the remainder 

 of the carcase, from which both by night and day lie 

 drives away all carnivorous animals that would 

 share it with him. As regards quadrupeds, he lias 

 little trouble, for they, knowing his po\vers, obey 

 without reflection, and remain on the watch at 

 twenty, thirty, and forty paces distance, waiting 

 until such time as the ' Master ' leaves the spot 

 with a firm and grave step, and abandons to them 

 the residue of his royal repast ; but those who give 

 him most trouble are the vultures,* who, alighting 

 on the carcase, are always bearing away something 

 in spite of the king of the forest, or the ilourish of 

 his formidable paws." 



Notwithstanding the respect usually shewn to the 



wrist, they arc those of a full grown male lion ; if smaller, of a lioness 

 or a young lion." 



* Elsewhere Dclegorgue, in his interesting work, tolls us "(hut 

 on one occasion he came on the c.ircase of a newly slain elephant, 

 so thickly covered with vultures that with a single ball he put no 

 fewer than nine of these disgusting birds ]KH- <l>; cunibat.. 



