INTRODUCTORY. 7 



to shoot lion, a great number of them wage war against him with poison and traps 

 in spite of the very minute damage he appears to do to their stock. For the usual 

 lion of East Africa is a plain-dwelling and game-feeding lion, and very rarely even 

 attacks the cattle of the native, and practically never if the cattle are enclosed at 

 night in a proper stockade. It is generally the men who are too lazy to build for 

 their cattle any better protection than a fence of twigs, who resort to poison. 



As this state of things exists, I do not think that the sportsman who shoots a 

 number of these fine animals has any cause to reproach himself. For if the lion had 

 the option of being killed by a bullet, with a fair chance of a dash at the shooter, 

 or of being taken unawares by a dose of strychnine, there is little doubt that he 

 would choose the former. Moreover, one only shoots full-grown specimens and 

 males for preference. I have never shot, and hope never to shoot, young and half- 

 grown lion. The poison bottle is unable to discriminate between young and old, and 

 even some sportsmen, it must be admitted, are equally indiscriminate. 



Now as to the buffalo. One bull is at present allowed to be shot on a licence in 

 British East Africa. Considering the tough customers they are, the thick country 

 they inhabit, and when one remembers that they are among the cutest of game in 

 seeing, hearing, scenting, and bush tactics, no sportsman could be considered greedy 

 or barbarous if he endeavoured to shoot his one per annum. 



In Uganda they have been found to do so much damage that they have been 

 removed from the list of protected animals, and there, at least, the sportsman has 

 very good excuse for wanting to shoot one or two. 



Concerning the bongo, he is really a fairly common animal in certain parts of 

 the country. He lives in such thick jungle and is so wary that all the sportsmen 

 who live in the country, together with the many who visit it on shooting trips, do not 

 account for one in a year. In fact, I believe that I am about the only white man 

 who has tracked up and shot this animal without other aid than my rifle. The native 

 hunters obtain them by trapping them or hunting them with dogs. 



As for the kudus, they are also very wary bush customers, and their death-rate 

 is very low. The lesser kudu, at any rate, is common enough, so a few superfluous 

 males thinned off can do no harm ; on the contrary, it is probable that it is beneficial 

 to their rate of production. The females, being hornless, would not be shot. The 

 greater kudu is scarce enough to make it a pity to molest it, and it is very wisely 

 protected in the only area in which it occurs at all commonly, viz., the Baringo 

 district. 



Of the other animals occasionally hunted, one's reasons for shooting them would 

 be much on the same lines as those above. 



