Habits of the Lion, 195 



it before completing this volume. Further, I do not wish 

 to write much on lions as compared to Mr. F. C. Selous and 

 Mr. F. Vaughan-Kirby, my experience of them having been 

 very small indeed, as I have had very bad luck in finding^ 

 them. Considering the immense amount of wild country 

 I have walked over, I have come to the conclusion that 

 lions are rather scarce in Nyasaland and North-Eastern 

 Rhodesia, except in certain parts, and as a rule it is pure 

 chance coming on them. 



The proper way to measure a lion or leopard skin is to 

 stretch the animal out as straight as possible and put a 

 peg in at the nose and another at the end of the tail, and 

 measure the space between them. This should be done 

 when the animal is freshly killed, as it will stiffen up soon. 

 To measure a skin that has been flayed from the animal 

 is no true index, as it is an easy matter to stretch it about 

 a foot, particularly if it has been soaked in water for twelve 

 hours. 



Lions kill by biting, and use their claws for gripping 

 their prey, and a charging lion comes along low, like a 

 big dog ; so it offers a better target than a leopard, which 

 bounds. They often break into cattle, sheep, and goat 

 kraals, and do this by forcing a space between the poles 

 near the ground, for they will seldom jump into such an 

 enclosure. If they are disturbed, however, they have no 

 hesitation in jumping through the interstices of the poles 

 where they are usually wider apart, about zoft. or I2ft. 

 from the ground, and in doing this they will go right 

 through big thorn branches. Lions realise that their 

 existence largely depends on the soundness of their pads, 

 so they are usually careful about interfering with thorns, 

 except when they are famished with hunger, when they 

 become heedless of anything. 



They kill numbers of native pigs, and have little diffi- 

 culty in breaking into the flimsy enclosures that natives 

 often keep them in. 



In a wild state they kill many buffaloes, elands, and 

 zebras, and they like donkeys ; so if such animals are taken 



O 2 



