Diar//. 51 



animal drawing in breath through a broken 

 windpipe. I thought it was the donkey expir- 

 ing. After about five minutes of this, the lioness 

 suddenly raised herself on her forelegs. I fired 

 at once as she was nearly ont of range of my 

 loophole. Jama said she lurched back just 

 before I fired and I had missed. I saw nothing 

 when the gun was up. The lioness lay groaning 

 and sucking in her breath about three yards 

 from the zereba, but on the side where the drift 

 wood had lodged and I could not see her. I 

 knew then I had hit her in the throat. After 

 about twenty minutes she went slowly off and lay 

 down again about eighty yards off groaning. 

 After about twenty more minutes, all was quiet. 

 At 4.30 I went out of the zereba. The donkey 

 had faced the lioness right well, she could not 

 get at his throat, but had seized him across the 

 forehead just above the eyes and had torn the 

 whole front of his head away ; he must have died 

 quickly. At 5.30 I started; we followed the 

 tracks for about 200 yards, finding very little 

 blood, when one of the men saw the lioness lying 

 in the open 150 yards off; before I could get the 

 express she was off and went into cover on the 



