LIONS 



been mighty lion hunters for many years, and who 

 have brought to their hunting close observation, 

 can only tell you what a lion may do in certain cir- 

 cumstances. Following very broad principles, they 

 may even predict what he is apt to do, but never 

 what he certainly will do. That is one thing that 

 makes lion hunting interesting. 



In general, then, the lion frequents that part of 

 the country where feed the great game herds. From 

 them he takes his toll by night, retiring during the 

 day into the shallow ravines, the brush patches, or 

 the rocky little buttes. I have, however, seen lions 

 miles from game, slumbering peacefully atop an ant 

 hill. Indeed, occasionally, a pack of lions likes to 

 live high in the tall-grass ridges where every hunt 

 will mean for them a four-or five-mile jaunt out and 

 back again. He needs water, after feeding, and so 

 rarely gets farther than eight or ten miles from that 

 necessity. 



He hunts at night. This is as nearly invariable 

 a rule as can be formulated in regard to lions. Yet 

 once, and perhaps twice, I saw lionesses stalking 

 through tall grass as early as three o'clock in the 

 afternoon. This eagerness may, or may not, have 

 had to do with the possession of hungry cubs. The 

 lion's customary harmlessness in the daytime is 

 best evidenced, however, by the comparative in- 



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