196 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



on a journey through a lion country, they should be well 

 guarded at night. 



The lion's great feature, excluding his name, is his roar, 

 and it is certainly a wild sound when heard on a dark 

 rainy night. I have only heard lions roar close once, and 

 and by close I mean within 100 yards ; and that was 

 during a night in the rains on the Luangwa River in 

 North-Eastern Rhodesia, and it was raining hard at the time. 



The air seemed to vibrate with the sound, and the 

 rats, crickets, and other tropical insects were evidently 

 frightened, as they kept quiet. A dog I haH in the hut 

 with me was fairly well scared out of his wits, for he 

 shivered and trembled, although he was a very plucky 

 terrier, and eventually met his death by running out at 

 night to tackle a leopard singly. The lions I think there 

 were five took up the chorus, and I could hear the long 

 sigh after each roar. In wild places one will sometimes 

 hear lions roaring at a distance, and I have often listened 

 to the sobbing grunts of lions as they were prowling round ; 

 but, though I sometimes went to try to find them next 

 day, they were somewhere else. As Mr. F. C. Selous and 

 other authors have written so much on the lion, it is 

 needless for me to write more about this fine animal. 



LEOPARD (Felis pardus). 



NATIVE NAMES. 



~, . . (Nyalugwe. 

 Chmyanja - > 



, 



(Natave. 



Chingoni - 



(Ngombwa. 



Approximate weight, $ ...... nolb. 



Good average skin, $ ...... yft. 3in. straight. 



The leopard is one of the wariest animals in the world, 

 and he seems to know how to look after his skin, which is 

 a very handsome trophy, and really much prettier than a 

 lion's, unless he has a fine mane. Leopards are fond of 

 hilly country and thick bush wherever it is found, so as the 

 country I write of is covered in parts with trees and bush, 



