244 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



the remains of more buffaloes which have been killed by lions 

 than anything else. The zebra comes next, and then the 

 hartebeest. Since, however, the buffaloes have been decimated 

 by disease, the zebra, of which there are still countless herds, 

 will probably stand first. Although I have carefully examined 

 the carcases of several buffaloes and zebras, I have never been 

 able to discover anything about them to warrant my expressing 

 an opinion as to how they had actually been killed by the 

 lions. The most noticeable thing about two freshly killed 

 buffaloes and one zebra was the terrible way in which they were 

 lacerated about the hind-quarters, evidently by the lions at their 

 first spring and during the subsequent desperate struggle before 

 they actually killed them. In every case when I found a fresh 

 kill the stomach had been torn open, and the liver, heart, and 

 entrails had formed the first meal. On one occasion I was 

 attracted by vultures to the spot where a lion and two lionesses 

 had shortly before killed a cow buffalo, and I had a good 

 opportunity of watching them before I fired, as I was well con- 

 cealed. The lion was devouring the entrails, &c., and one 

 lioness was tearing at the throat, whilst the other, which I did 

 not see at the time, was lying under a bush close by, eating 

 a foetus calf which she had dragged out of the cow. After 

 shooting the lion and severely wounding a lioness, which 

 unfortunately got away, I carefully examined the buffalo, which 

 was lying on its right side, with its head twisted round until the 

 back of its head, and the curved points of both horns were 

 resting on the ground, with its nose upwards. The soft part 

 of the nose had been eaten off, the tongue torn out by the 

 gullet underneath the lower jaw, and the flesh under the 

 uppermost foreleg was also eaten away ; the tail had been bitten 

 short off at the root and was lying on the ground, and a small 

 piece of each hind-quarter just below the tail had also gone. 

 The stomach was torn open, the liver, heart, and part of the 

 entrails eaten, and the foetus calf was also half eaten. When 

 my men had cut the remainder of the beast up to sell to the 

 natives for flour, &c., I examined the vertebrae of the neck, but 



