With Flashlight and Rifle * 



a thorn-bush, and there is no doubt that they are often 

 fruitful enough. In this way it was that Count Couden- 

 hove some years ago in Somaliland shot seven lions in 

 one night on the dead body of an elephant, lie describes 

 the incident lucidly in the account of his travels. I think 

 highly of his description. It seems to me absolutely con- 

 vincing, and without exaggeration of any kind. 



Count Coudenhove tells us how he was gradually 

 bewildered by the way in which lion after lion kept 

 turning up continually quite near him during the night, 

 and thus went through a by no means enviable experience. 

 I have myself had similar experiences on such occasions. 

 They have given me many interesting opportunities of 

 studying the habits of animals at night time, but I must 

 say that I don't think much of the shooting of lions at 

 short range from the security of a thorn-bush as a sport. 

 The darkness necessitates your shooting more or less by 

 guesswork ; sleep, so essential to you in these unhealthy 

 climates, is interfered with, and your day's work is entirely 

 upset. 



I consider every other kind of lion-hunting prefer- 

 able to these night-shoots, even the iron-plate trap method, 

 which often has very dangerous and exciting consequences 

 owing to the lion breaking away with the iron. 



The lion leads a nocturnal existence generally speaking, 

 an3 rests under trees and in bushes during the day. 

 By day, therefore, he is very seldom to be seen. Even 

 when you do sight him, he has generally sighted you 

 first, and disappears into the thicket before you can get 

 a shot at him. So far back as 1896 I ventured to 



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