THE LION. 19 



Quoting Mr. Selous : " Wlien lions are met with in the day- 

 time they almost invariably retreat before the presence of man, 

 even when disturbed at the carcass of an animal which they have 

 just killed, and when they are presumably hungry. If pursued or 

 wounded, however, they may be expected to charge ceteris paribus. 

 I have found in my small experience that a far larger proportion 

 of them do charge than of any other animal in Southern Africa 

 with which I am acquainted, and as their power of concealing 

 themselves and their quickness and agility in attack are far 

 greater than in an elephant, buffalo, or rhinoceros, I pronounce 

 them to be more dangerous animals to meddle with than any of 

 these. As with men and all other animals, individual lions differ 

 so much in disposition one from another that it is impossible to 

 tell from one's experience of one what the next is likely to do, and 

 I do not consider that any man has a right to say that lions are 

 cowardly beasts because the two or three that he has shot have 

 not happened to show fight, but have exhibited great pusillanimity. 

 At night, and when urged on by hunger, lions are sometimes 

 incredibly daring, in fact, as old Jan Yiljoen once said to me, 

 • a hungry lion is a true devil and fears nothing in the world.' " 



The lion is still to be found in large numbers in Northern 

 and Southern Africa, and in smaller numbers it is found over 

 the whole of the African continent. It is also to be found in 

 Persia and Arabia, and at Outch and Guzerat in Western India. 

 It formerly existed in South-eastern Europe, but has become 

 extinct there now. In Central India it is also getting rare, and 

 the price put on each animal by the Government, and the zeal of 

 sportsmen armed with such accurate and deadly weapons as are 

 now used, is making the lion a scarce animal in Asia, " and the 

 royal race of the forest, like other Indian dynasties," seems doomed. 



The favourite prey of the lion is the various species of deer and 

 antelope which abound in the plains, but he wiU attack much larger 

 animals, such as giraffes, buffaloes, zebras, and even elephants. 

 His leap is terrific, and it is said on good authority that in 

 making his spring at a deer or other animal should he spring 

 short, or overspring, he usually gives np further pursuit, his 

 energy being apparently exhausted, and returns sulkily to his 



