3 66 
CARNIVORES. 
As a rule, lions commence to roar with the falling shades of evening, and 
continue with longer or shorter intervals throughout the night; but Gordon 
Gumming states that in secluded and undisturbed districts he has frequently heard 
the roaring sustained as late as 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning on bright and sunny 
days. During cloudy and rainy weather they will however roar, although in a 
lower tone, throughout the day. 
Although in some districts lions are commonly met either alone, or in pairs of 
males and females, this does not seem to be generally the case in the interior of 
South Africa, where, according to Mr. Selous, it is more usual to meet with four or 
five lions consorting together, while parties of from ten to twelve are by no means 
rare. Such a party of twelve would, in the experience of the same observer, 
probably comprise about two adult males, three or four full-grown lionesses, and 
half a dozen large cubs, which, except for their somewhat slighter build, might 
easily be mistaken for mature females. On one occasion Mr. Selous mentions that 
he came across a party consisting of a lion, three full-grown lionesses, and three 
small cubs; and he adds that if each of these females had possessed a pair of large 
cubs, such an assemblage would have been rightly termed a party of ten lions. It 
was probably such a party, although comprising more adult males, that Lord 
Randolph Churchill encountered during his recent journey in Mashonaland, when 
in company with his hunter Lee. “We were riding along,” writes his lordship in 
his Letters from Mashonaland, “through a small open glade covered with high 
grass, Lee a few yards ahead of me, when I suddenly saw him turn round, cry out 
something to me, and point with his finger ahead. I looked, and saw lolloping 
along through and over the grass, about forty yards off, a yellow animal about as 
big as a small bullock. It flashed across me that it was a lion—the last thing in 
the world that I was thinking of. I was going to dismount and take aim, for I 
was not frightened at the idea of firing at a retreating lion, but Lee called out in 
succession five or six times, ‘ Look, look ! ’ at the same time pointing with his finger 
in different directions in front. I saw, to my astonishment, and rather to my 
dismay, that the glade appeared to be alive with lions. There they were, trooping 
and trotting along ahead of us like a lot of enormous dogs—great yellow objects, 
offering such a sight as I had never dreamed of. Lee turned to me and said, 
‘ What will you do ? ’ I said, ‘ I suppose we must go after them,’ thinking all the 
time that I was making a very foolish answer. This I am the more convinced of 
now, for Lee told me afterwards that many old hunters in South Africa will turn 
away from such a troop of lions as we had before us. We trotted on after them a 
short distance to where the grass was more open, the lions trotting along ahead of us 
in the most composed and leisurely fashion, very different from the galloping off of a 
surprised and startled antelope.” Lord Randolph Churchill himself counted no less 
than seven lions, while his hunter believed that there were several more in the party. 
When a male lion has selected a female partner the union very generally 
lasts for the greater portion or the entire lives of the pair. From the evidence 
of specimens kept in captivity it is known that from two to six cubs may be 
produced at a birth, at least in the captive condition. It is stated, however, that 
in India wild lionesses do not produce more than two or three cubs at a birth; 
and Mr. Selous is of opinion that three is the usual number in South Africa, where 
