APPENDIX. 271 



plains or bush-lions which had followed up the camp at the rail head as the work was pushed 

 forward, I do not know. 



Anyhow, the lion appears since to have quite reformed in this locality, although occasionally 

 one hears of a man-eater in the bush-country between Makindu and Voi. 



In the open plains lions are easily overtaken on horseback ; in fact, when pursued in this 

 way they seldom make a serious attempt to escape, but sit down and await the horseman. 



Bush-dwelling Lions. — These animals have to work much harder for their food than do the 

 lions of the plains. Game is scarcer and warier in the bush, and so they have often to cover 

 enormous distances in pursuit of it. They do not hunt together in large parties, but generally 

 singly or in pairs. They have no lairs or favourite haunts, for they must always be changing 

 localities to find fresh game, or game that has not been alarmed. When they kill they make 

 the most of the meat, and often lie near the kill during the following day. Hysenas are scarcer 

 in the bush, and vultures do not often see the kill amongst the trees, and so the lions are often 

 able to return the following night and every subsequent night to their kills until finished. When 

 game is difficult to obtain, often two or three will organise a drive of small game, two lying in 

 wait whilst, perhaps, one drives. 



The bush-lion often passes many days without being able to kill. It is on such occasions 

 that he is constrained to look for man or for stock. Whereas the lion of the plains is almost 

 always fat and full when killed, an inspection of a bush-lion often shows that he is in poor 

 condition and has not fed for many days. This is the more often remarked on as it is often after 

 such periods of hunger that he falls a victim to the rifle whilst trying to break into a kraal, or, 

 having killed an animal and having been frightened, he subsequently tries to return to the kill. 



On killing, a lion generally first sucks the blood of its victim. After this a bush-lion will 

 sometimes leave the animal and return later for the meat. Perhaps after a long fast it finds this 

 method is more healthy than that of at once filling its stomach, or it may be that after drinking 

 the blood it feels thirsty and treks off to water. The plain-lion is unable to leave the kill in this 

 way, for the moment its back is turned the hyaenas will make a clean sweep of the carcase, or, 

 failing their presence, the vultures will strip the carcase the next day. 



The District Commissioner at Malindi told me that a lion broke into a kraal near that place 

 and killed something like fifty goats, drinking the blood of each, but did not touch the meat. 

 Neither did it return for the meat afterwards. It is seldom that a lion kills wantonly in this 

 manner, though I have heard cases of leopards killing a number of goats after breaking into a 

 kraal . 



On the coast and in parts of Uganda the chief food of the bush-lion is bush-pig, and in the 

 Eastern Congo it is almost entirely dependent on that animal. Where other game is plentiful in 

 the bush the lion fares better, its favourite food being buffalo, but it is also partial to eland, and, 

 when able, kills various kinds of buck, such as waterbuck, impala, and kob. 



A hungry lion may try to kill anything, but it appears unable to bring down such animals as 

 giraffes and the kudus. Cases have occurred of the former being killed by a party of lions, but 

 as a rule, they are immune from attack, whilst the latter are too wary and too quick over bad 

 country to fall easy victims. The usual method by which a lion kills a large animal is to spring 

 from one side on to its neck, seizing it with one of its fore paws over the nostrils and the other 

 over neck or shoulder, while it finishes the animal either by wrenching the head downwards and 

 backwards or by biting it on the neck behind the ears or by a combination of the two. The 

 lion's hind legs generally remain on the ground the while. Of course, if it sees that the animal 



