20 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



animals unconsciously feed close up to where a 

 lion happened to be lying resting and waiting for 

 night before commencing active hunting, he would 

 very likely make a rush and try and seize one 

 of them if he could. Upon two occasions I have 

 had my bullocks attacked in the middle of the day, 

 once by a single lioness, and on the other occasion 

 by a party of four lions, two lions and two lionesses. 

 But how many old hunters have seen lions actually 

 hunting in the full light of day ? Personally, in all 

 the long years I was hunting big game in Africa- 

 years during which I must have walked or ridden 

 many thousands of miles through country full of 

 game, and where lions were often numerous I only 

 once saw one of these animals hunting by daylight. 

 This lion was pursuing four koodoo cows on a cool 

 cloudy winter's morning. 



As a rule, lions do not commence to hunt before 

 darkness has set in. They then seek their prey by- 

 scent, either smelling the animals directly or follow- 

 ing their tracks. They understand as well as the 

 most experienced human hunter the art of approach- 

 ing game below the wind, when hunting singly ; 

 but when there are several lions hunting together, 

 I believe that some of them will sometimes creep 

 close up to a herd of game below the wind, whilst 

 one or more of their number go round to the other 

 side. The buffaloes, zebras, or antelopes at once 

 get the scent of these latter, and run off right on 

 to the lions lying waiting below the wind, which 

 then get a good chance to seize and pull down one 

 of the frightened animals. As lions have played 

 this game with my cattle upon several occasions, 

 I presume that they often act in the same way with 

 wild animals. 



No matter how dark the night may be, a lion 

 has no difficulty in seizing an ox, a horse, or a 

 donkey exactly in the right way, and I have no 



