290 LARGE GAME. chap. vi. 



South-Western Africa, and speaks of in the following 

 terms i 1 — 



" Being in advance of the waggons, I suddenly came upon an 

 animal, which, though considerably smaller, much resembled a lion 

 in appearance. Under ordinary circumstances I should certainly 

 have taken it for a young lion, but I had formerly been given to 

 understand that in this part of Africa there exists a quadruped 

 which, in regard to shape and colour, is like the lion, but, in most 

 other respects, totally distinct from it. The beast in question may 

 be said to be nocturnal in its habits, to be timid and harmless, and 

 to prey for the most part on the small species of antelopes. In the 

 native language it is called Onguirira, and would, so far as I could 

 see, have answered the description of a puma." 



Andersson here so exactly describes this animal — which, 

 though its spotted skin on a closer view would have shown 

 him to what species it belonged, at a little distance so 

 strongly resembles a lion from its tawny yellowness and 

 general shape, that I was once, as will afterwards be 

 seen, myself deceived by it — that I have not the slightest 

 doubt that it is identical with the ngulule of Eastern 

 Africa, though, as far as I know, it does not exist in the 

 South. 



The third, which is the smallest, and in my opinion 

 not a distinct species, but merely a variety of the first 

 mentioned, like it goes under the generic name of " ingwe" 

 among the natives, and " tiger " among the colonists, and 

 is only distinguishable by the jet blackness of its spots, and 

 the greater purity of the grounding, as well as by being 

 the most fierce. It is also far less common, and its cubs, 

 like those of the larger variety, have their markings com- 

 plete at birth, though their coats are not so smooth nor 

 the colour so clearly defined as in those of full growth. 



1 Lake Ngami, p. 149. 



