!6 THE ANIMALS OF NORTHERN AFRICA 



gallop, moves with relatively great speed, and even in his ordinary pace covers, 

 owing to his lone: strides, a considerable distance in a shorter time than at first 

 appears to be the case. This rapidity of movement and the capacity of the lion 

 for hiding in long grass, in which he is perhaps cleverer than any other animal, 

 make it a dangerous thing for a hunter on foot to pursue a wounded lion, 

 however easy the first attack may have been. Even a wounded lion sometimes 

 springs with lightning-like rapidity on the pursuer ; and in any case the death of 

 a hunter approaching a wounded lion is pretty certain, instances in which natives 

 armed only with spears have killed lions before they themselves were badly 

 wounded being exceptions. Generally a whole troop of natives, armed with spears, 

 join in attacking a lion, which sometimes leaps at one bound over the heads of the 

 nearest men right into their midst, rushing from one to the other, striking down a 

 man with each blow of his paws, and at last dying pierced by innumerable spears. 

 Whatever exaggeration may occur in descriptions of the sport, it is at any rate 

 clear that the danger in the case of a solitary lion-hunter on foot is infinitely 

 greater than in tiger-hunting from the back of an elephant. 



Lions, like tigers, attack their prey with a cough-like roar. They advance 

 rapidly, with their bodies close to the ground (not erect as so often represented in 

 pictures), and with their ears laid so close down as to make them look almost earless, 

 and on reaching their foes at once strike them to the ground. One well-known 

 traveller has related that the pain experienced as the claws and teeth of the lion 

 pierce the flesh is less than might be expected, and that only the breaking of 

 the bones between the powerful jaws of the beast is really agonising. The same 

 observer states that he experienced nothing of that stupor, which has been said by 

 other travellers attacked by lions to prevent any feeling of pain. He considers it 

 best to keep perfectly quiet under such circumstances, as lions bite at everything 

 that moves. Lions do not apparently dislocate the neck-vertebrse of their victims 

 in the fashion of tigers, as cows and other animals killed by lions have been found 

 with their necks unbroken ; and a lioness has been seen clutching a camel for 

 several minutes without making the slightest attempt to break its neck. Other 

 lions have been observed to kill a horse, a small elephant, and two antelopes by 

 biting at the throat, and zebras by biting them close behind the head in the back 

 of the neck. Buffaloes alone are said to be sometimes killed by lions leaping upon 

 their shoulders and smashing their noses with one paw, by which means the necks 

 of the victims are suddenly bent sideways, thus breaking the vertebral column. 



In former times lions were believed to throw large animals, such as oxen 

 and buffaloes, across their backs and carry them off bodily in this summary fashion ; 

 but modern observers agree in regarding this as impossible, and that the bodies of 

 large animals are dragged along the ground. The same holds good even for small 

 antelopes; and in no case would a lion be able to jump over a high fence with an 

 ox or a buffalo on its back. 



When dragging away their prey, lions do not present the majestic appearance 

 which we observe in zoological gardens when we see one of these animals standing 

 with head erect, apparently gazing into space. 



In Africa the lioness generally produces three or four cubs at birth, but in 

 India the number is stated not to exceed three, and to be often only two. When 



