EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS. 727. 



Avay. On hearing the continuous rattling of ti\e chains and the 

 growling, we congratulated ourselves on having got one lion at 

 least. 



Tliey presently returned to the kill to discuss dessert, and dis- 

 cuss it they certainly did, growling, grunting and snarling as 

 they crunched the hones, which they would drag away and e.at by 

 themselves: some v/alked about and grunted. This disconcerting 

 oonimotion continued till a couple of hours before dawn : there 

 was one interruption when two lions came along the rid<'e 

 forming our side of the valley and gave a peculiar sing-song call 

 that I have never heard I'rom alien before, and strongly reminded 

 me of the cry of a hunting-dog ; this was answered by a lion at the 

 kill, which left the kill and walking past us, calling the whole time, 

 joined the others on the ridge above, when they all Avent off in 

 the direction taken by the mob of eland, I imagine the peculiar 

 ciy of the lions was a call to come and join another hunt. Not 

 long after this a lion came back to us and pattered round, lay 

 down and breathed hard. Though we were having occasional 

 llashes of lightning and a good deal of thunder the darkness 

 was absolutely iuj penetrable, and while listening for further move- 

 ments on the part of our visitor, I fell asleep. 



When I awoke dawn was breaking, but still the lighl^ was too 

 poor to see a riile sight. I jumped up, and crept silently to the 

 side of the stockade nearest the kill. For a moment 1 saw nothing, 

 then iti the grey light I made out a lioness standing with her 

 whole flank exposed not fifty yards awaj'^, she was looking towards 

 the water. I turned round and whispered to the boy to hand me 

 the rifle, our quarters being somewhat cramped: in doing so, he 

 made some small sound which caused the lioness to spring round 

 facing me and growl, .at the same moment a veiy small cub came 

 i-acing up from the water's edge, and the pair of them trotted off 

 immediately and obliquely. I had scarcely time to thrust the 

 muzzle of the rifle through the fence and take a hurried shot 

 after them, before they were lost to sight in the maze of thorn- 

 bush. The boy scrambled up the tree which formed one end of 

 the stockade, and said that he could see a big maned lion making 

 off from the kill, which was hidden from our view by intervening 

 thorn-bush ; he was already a long way off, being doubtless startled 

 by the shot. So, after all, we returned to camp empty-handed, 

 but not regretting a very interesting experience. 



Felis pardus suauelica Neum. 



Two specimens gun-trapped with -22 at Kilosa. Like the last, 

 the Leopard .has such a wide distribution in Tanganyika that to 

 record localities seems but a waste of time. 



Native names seem to be generally derived from the Kiswahili 

 Chui ; in Kinyaturu, Mui ; in Kisukuma, Sui ; in Kikami, Duma ; 

 in Ohigogo, Suwi. 



Both the above-mentioned specimens were immature — viz., 



48* 



