46 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



Leopards generally lie up during the day in the thickest 

 covert they can find, reeds, bush, or long grass. When 

 their lairs are rocky krantzes and kopjes, where the mid- 

 day sun beats down upon the sparsely covered rocks 

 so that the surface becomes almost red hot, they like 

 to creep into caves and crevices, where they lie sheltered 

 until the cool, dark hours arrive. In the Transvaal low 

 country, where abundance of good bush covert exists, 

 I have not found that leopards patronize the kopjes 

 and rocky outcrops which are studded over the country 

 at frequent intervals. Now and then they go to such 

 spots at night in order to hunt the baboons which make 

 their homes there ; but apparently they do not favour 

 them as day resorts, and far prefer the cool reed or bush- 

 clad banks of some forest pool or stream. Occasionally 

 their day may be spent up some leafy tree, lying ex- 

 tended along one of the great horizontally-growing 

 branches. 



Leopards are essentially nocturnal beasts, and, of all 

 the larger carnivora, are probably the least frequently 

 encountered in daylight by the sportsman. Fortune 

 smiled on one of the staff at Sabi Bridge, when he nearly 

 walked on to one stretched asleep across a game track ; 

 but, his rifle being unloaded, he failed to live up to his 

 opportunity. A similarly annoying episode occurred in 

 my own experience. I was wheeling a bicycle through 

 a difficult bit of road in Uganda, the gun-bearer fifty 

 yards behind with -the rifle, when a fine leopard walked 

 out of the bush within a short stone's throw, and quietly 

 crossed the road, either not seeing, or completely ignoring 

 us. This was about u A.M. on a hot morning, a most 

 unusual time for a leopard to be on the move. 



One morning, three or four years ago, Ranger Healy 

 and I were walking through the bush. Accompanying 



