270 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



of bone just above me, and on looking over the top saw that one lion was just finishing his meal 

 and two lionesses were descending, whilst I saw shortly afterwards another lion going off below, 

 he having been the first to leave. They had taken the impala bodily up from where it had 

 dropped, to the top of the rock to feed on it there. 



The plains lions seem very fond of water, and often lie up in the centre of some reed-bed 

 which is mostly under water, and to approach which they must pass through swamp. I believe 

 that they are in the habit of crossing the Tana River, at a place where it is at least a hundred 

 and fifty yards broad. Of this I am not certain, but they certainly cross its tributaries, such 

 rivers as the Thika and Ziba, the last a swift-flowing river fifty yards or more in width. 



It is extraordinary how lions will often return to some favourite haunt, even if they are 

 constantly disturbed and shot at there. Such a place is the famous stony Athi reed-bed, which 

 must have been driven for lions dozens of times, and yet they still return there. Where lions 

 are constantly disturbed and shot at they seldom roar. The reed-bed just referred to is an 

 instance in point, for the lions which lie up there are perfectly silent. A lion, lying in a big 

 reed-bed such as this one, if disturbed will take refuge in another part of the bed, or if induced 

 to break out will try to break back again into another part. When disturbed lying in a small 

 clump or patch of cover they will generally bolt out on the opposite side and make off. They 

 will then, as a rule, cross several rises and dips till they are out of sight, when they will take 

 cover in a thick bed or nullah. 



When wounded a lion almost invariably retires to some thick cover, and if followed up, 

 seldom, or practically never, tries to bolt, but awaits its pursuer concealed in cover, confident 

 that the advantage lies all on its side. 



Lions appear to be almost fearless of man at night, and should occasion offer pass quite 

 close to human habitations. As a rule their pursuit of game takes them away from civilisation, 

 but occasionally animals will come in close to houses at night for protection, or when pursued 

 will bolt through even a town such as Nairobi. The lion then has no compunction in following them. 

 A party of lions are recorded to have killed and eaten a zebra one Christmas within a few yards 

 of the railway offices at Nairobi, and not many months ago a lion killed a zebra 150 yards from 

 the military lines and demolished it there. Cases used to occur fairly frequently of lions pursuing 

 zebra into the town of Nairobi, but now one hears less of them. In some places they find the 

 footpath alongside the railway line convenient for either setting out upon, or returning from, their 

 night's rambles. Cases have occurred when they have been run down by an engine, for 

 they do not trouble to move out of the way of a train, nor do they trouble to walk round 

 a station, preferring to march straight through on the line. In a train I was once in 

 the driver said that he had ran against some animal during the night, and on inspecting 

 the cow-catcher I found caught in under a nut some unmistakable lion's hairs which I have 

 kept as a memento. Even a shot fired at night seems to cause them no anxiety ; on the 

 contrary, if they are walking along they will stop to reconnoitre, but will not bolt. During the 

 construction of the railway many coolies and workmen fell victims to lions, especially whilst 

 passing through the thick bush. A lust of man-killing, which has not since been equalled or in 

 any way approximated, seemed to take possession of the lions in the neighbourhood of the 

 railway. Since those days authenticated cases of man-killing have been most rare and isolated. 

 Lions are also said to have killed workmen on the line when working through the plain, though 

 not to such an extent as in the bush. I have found human skulls in reed-beds near the line, 

 which I have been told belonged to workmen killed by lions. Whether these were lions of the 



