SHOOTING THE FELID^ OVER BAITS 67 



leopard will almost invariably slink off unperceived 

 when it has detected the sportsman. However, a 

 session for tigers or lions is usually an all-night 

 affair, and I should regard it as the height of folly 

 to spend a night over a bait in Africa behind no better 

 screen than a few branches. The lion is far bolder in 

 reconnaissance than the leopard, and will approach 

 the concealed hunter so closely as nearly to touch him. 

 If at the finish of this operation there were nothing 

 but a few branches intervening, I am convinced that 

 anger and excitement would provoke an attack 

 which could only have one ending. 



The sportsman in the Sudan must, therefore, 

 ensconce himself in a position of safety, and this can 

 only be done by hiding himself in a pit with a stout 

 roof of logs, or by constructing a platform in a tree. 

 The former is the method usually employed in Africa, 

 the latter in India. In the Sudan I tried both, 

 though I was told that the Indian method would 

 not answer. The nett result was that I shot two 

 leopards out of pits, getting into one situation that 

 might have become serious, whereas I secured two 

 leopards and six lionesses out of machans, as Indian 

 sportsmen call them, and never was in the remotest 

 danger until next morning. As regards comfort, 

 there can be no comparison between the two modes 

 of working. The sportsman in a well-constructed 

 machan can sleep as easily as in his bed. In a pit, 



