LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 71 



She returned in a minute, quietly remarking, "Father, 

 there's a leopard under the bed." So there was; and it 

 was then remembered that the house-cat had been showing 

 a marked and alert distrust of the room in question very 

 probably the leopard had gotten into the house while try- 

 ing to catch her or one of the dogs. A neighbor with a rifle 

 was summoned, and shot the leopard. 



Hyenas not infrequently kill mules and donkeys, tear- 

 ing open their bellies, and eating them while they are still 

 alive. Yet when themselves assailed they usually behave 

 with abject cowardice. The Hills had a large Airedale 

 terrier, an energetic dog of much courage. Not long before 

 our visit this dog put up a hyena from a bushy ravine, in 

 broad daylight, ran after it, overtook it, and flew at it. 

 The hyena made no effective fight, although the dog not 

 a third its weight bit it severely, and delayed its flight so 

 that it was killed. During the first few weeks of our trip 

 I not infrequently heard hyenas after nightfall, but saw 

 none. Kermit, however, put one out of a ravine or dry 

 creek-bed a donga, as it is locally called and though the 

 brute had a long start he galloped after it and succeeded 

 in running it down. The chase was a long one, for twice the 

 hyena got in such rocky country that he almost distanced 

 his pursuer; but at last, after covering nearly ten miles, 

 Kermit ran into it in the open, shooting it from the saddle 

 as it shambled along at a canter growling with rage and 

 terror. I would not have recognized the cry of the hyenas 

 from what I had read, and it was long before I heard them 

 laugh. Pease said that he had only once heard them really 

 laugh. On that occasion he was watching for lions outside 

 a Somali zareba. Suddenly a leopard leaped clear over 

 the zareba, close beside him, and in a few seconds came 

 flying back again, over the high thorn fence, with a sheep 

 in its mouth; but no sooner had it landed than the hyenas 

 rushed at it and took away the sheep; and then their cack- 

 ling and shrieking sounded exactly like the most unpleasant 

 kind of laughter. The normal death of very old lions, as 



