50 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



scratched out and not eaten, as the hair of a buck 

 would be. 



Leopards as a rule prefer to kill their own meat, having 

 a great liking for warm blood ; but when pressed by 

 hunger, have no objection to almost any kind of carrion, 

 and often are taken in traps set for hyaenas. Once, 

 indeed, a female leopard met her fate when the bait for 

 want of better, was actually the flesh of one of these 

 rather unsavoury animals. They will return again and 

 again to their own kill, regardless of its decay, until it is 

 finished ; but cannot be depended upon to do so on 

 consecutive nights. Indeed, if the least suspicious of 

 danger, it is possible that a leopard may allow several 

 days to elapse ere he comes back, though eventually I 

 think he may be relied upon to re-visit the spot, unless 

 he happens accidentally to have met with and killed 

 some new prey in the meantime. I once came on a 

 kill about three days old and half consumed, but three 

 more full nights had passed before the animal again came 

 near it. 



Like lions, leopards can go for a considerable time 

 without food, and, to an even greater extent, believe in 

 "making hay while the sun shines." Especially is this 

 true of a leopardess with cubs. In such a case the toll 

 exacted from a herd of impala, for example, will be 

 measured only by the agility of the members in effecting 

 their escape. Instances of a couple of impalas or reed- 

 bucks, killed apparently during the same onslaught by 

 a single leopard are numerous ; and should one of these 

 savage little brutes succeed in entering a goat or sheep 

 pen, it will not rest content until every one of the inmates 

 has been disposed of. Since usually it takes the better 

 part of a week for a leopard to consume entirely a full- 

 grown impala or reedbuck ram, pure lust of slaughter 



