MAMMALS HUNTED FOR SPORT 



371 



their flocks and herds as well as of their own lives. . . . Speaking 

 generally, it is a difficult matter to find and hunt lions in the 

 daytime, and shooting them at night cannot be called hunting. 

 Lion hunting on horseback, as it used to be commonly practised 

 in South Africa, is the most exciting form of big game hunting 

 I have had experience of, as lions almost always turn vicious 

 when chased on horseback, and charge freely, and whether you 



Fig. 1263. — Lion {Felis led) 



are galloping after a lion or a lion is close behind your horse's 

 heels, your nerves are kept strung as long as the hunt lasts. It 

 will be many a long day yet before the lion has ceased to haunt 

 the wilds of Africa, but when that day comes, one of the grandest 

 forms of wild sport will also have become a thing of the past." 



The hunting of the Tiger {Felis tigris) appears at the present 

 time to be an increasingly rare and expensive form of sport, when 

 conducted in an orthodox way with numerous elephants, some 

 for beating, and others with howdahs for the accommodation 

 of the actual huntsmen. In some parts of India packs of dogs 



