70 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
the ostriches or stock of the settlers, or ravaged the herds 
and flocks of the natives, but not often; for their favor¬ 
ite food was yielded by the swarming herds of kongoni 
and zebras, on which they could prey at will. Later we 
found that in this region they rarely molested the buffalo, 
even where they lived in the same reedbeds; and this though 
elsewhere they habitually prey on the buffalo. But where 
zebras and hartebeests could be obtained without effort, 
it was evidently not worth their while to challenge such 
formidable quarry. Every ''kill’' I saw was a kongoni or 
a zebra; probably I came across fifty of each. One zebra 
kill, which was not more than eighteen hours old (after 
the lapse of that time the vultures and marabouts, not to 
speak of the hyenas and jackals, leave only the bare bones), 
showed just what had occurred. The bones were all in 
place, and the skin still on the lower legs and head. The 
animal was lying on its belly, the legs spread out, the neck 
vertebra crushed; evidently the lion had sprung clean on 
it, bearing it down by his weight while he bit through the 
back of the neck, and the zebra’s legs had spread out as the 
body yielded under the lion. One fresh kongoni kill showed 
no marks on the haunches, but a broken neck and claw 
marks on the face and withers; in this case the lion’s hind 
legs had remained on the ground, while with his fore paws 
he grasped the kongoni’s head and shoulders, holding it 
until the teeth splintered the neck bone. 
One or two of our efforts to get lions failed, of course; 
the ravines we beat did not contain them, or we failed to 
make them leave some particularly difficult hill or swamp— 
for lions lie close. But Sir Alfred knew just the right place 
to go to, and was bound to get us lions—and he did. 
