98 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



try to pursue them that they do not mind his presence, whilst at night they only 

 let him come close when they know that he has just fed. 



The lion roars for a variety of purposes, as I shall endeavour to show under 

 the heading of "his habits" in Part II., but the meanings of some of his 

 roarings are not clear to me. I have often heard it stated, in excuse for his 

 seeming folly at roaring and thus frightening or warning game of his presence, 

 that he only roars immediately after he has fed. This is by no means the case, 

 for I have repeatedly heard lions roaring at sundown and killing shortly afterwards. 

 However, his loudest and finest roars are generally after feeding, or rather 

 when drinking afterwards. I am unable to conceive what purpose this serves 

 unless it is merely as practice in an accomplishment which serves him well at 

 other times. 



Others say that his roaring is a ventriloquial performance to confuse game. 

 I do not believe in this statement either, as I have many times been able to locate 

 lions with comparative ease by their roaring. I have heard lions roaring at 

 sundown and located them with my glasses at no great distance from great herds 

 of zebra, gnu, and hartebeest which were grazing peacefully and perfectly 

 unconcernedly. One would think that the game would at least move off to some 

 little distance from the neighbourhood of danger. As to the ventriloquial 

 performance, I certainly believe that they roar to drive game to one another, 

 and that they also roar from one place and then move elsewhere to surprise the 

 game. Roaring is ventriloquial in so far as it always sounds very much closer 

 than it actually is, and may in this way turn game when they are trying to escape, 

 so that they may fall into the clutches of other lions lying silent. This, I take it, 

 is the chief purpose their roaring serves, i.e., the driving of game. Different 

 parties roaring in different directions would also make the game undecided as to 

 which direction to take when pursued, but of this, more later. What I wish to 

 show now is that the game of the plains are very callous as to the lion's roaring 

 or to any risks they run of being caught by him. 



Some of the actions of these plain-dwellers are positively foolhardy. You 

 find in a little dip a row of pools apparently all equally good for drinking purposes. 

 Some have thick grass and reeds near their brinks, and some bare earth or short 

 grass. Round the former lie, perhaps, two or three bleached skulls. At what value 

 is one to estimate the intellectual abilities of a herd of kongoni which innocently 

 strolls downwind to one of these reed clumps ? If a lion was even to lie perfectly 

 still in the open it is very likely that they would not notice him, but if they 

 approached upwind they could not fail to scent him. 



