WHEN LIONS GO HUNTING.

Mataura Ensign, 27 January 1911, Page 2

WHEN LIONS GO HUNTING.

LEO CROWN OLD. Lions go limiting often in couples, and then rather systematically. When, for instance, ;> couple ot lions linvc traced out a kraal—that is to say, a place, fenced by s:nall, cut thorn trees, v. here deck.-; of as'-os, or oxen, goats, or sheep arc shut up for the night—tlie lionuos approaches profiting by every tree or hush to hide herseif. At the same time the lion himself lies watching on the opposite side in the disance. Now the lio:ie:-s exerts for elf to arouse the cattle— whh h is not difiioult, as th.ey become excited merely by smelling a beast of prey—till the cattle are tormented to- the utmost fear and horror, break through the kraal on ilnside opposite to the lioness ami thus fall an easy proy to the lion. The lion chases his victim, and throttles it by springing on its neck or breast and biting its teeth into these parts. The hunted animal falls, and the lion now tears open the flanks. The lioness appears, and lias her share of the meal. Very often they cannot devour their victim in one night; then they come back to the place where th« remains are on the- following or the second night. The lion's favorite food is zebra, quagga (of which there are few left in Africa), and wild ass. The meat of these three kinds of animals is something alike in taste.' "When African lions go hunting they do it; often in the same manner as gentlemen going to "Jioor partridges. The lions roam over the hushvcld, and go hunting in community, some distance apart, thus beating a hunting ground of MO or more miles in a single night. The lions have no settled haunt where they are always to lie found, and for this reason. The animals which they arc hunting are obliged to seek their pasture-grounds, continually changing them for fresh ones. Hut when a couple of lions have Fittle ones their parents remain in the same district till the young lions are able to run. A lion grown old lives like a hermit; the younger beasts of his kind, regardless of his former valor and strength, do not suffer him to approach the females. He looks ragged and lean; his teeth are useless: he can no longer catch game as in former days. Kudu, giraffe, eland and gemsbok are too nimble for him. Ho is a poor old fellow, and wanders about with grumbling stomach, resting often after his rarely successful hunting, stretching himself in the warm sand like a tired dog, till one day. feeling his end coming, lie retires from the daylight to die in the darkness of a jungle, as nearly all animals do when the end approaches.