ABOUT THE LION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15056, 27 July 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

ABOUT THE LION.

ONE of the most interesting chapters in Dr. James Dunbar-Brunton's newly-issued " Big Game Hunting in Central Africa" is that on the lion. The beasts, we are told, although very plentiful in North-East Rhodesia, .are not often seen by Europeans even when hunting the bush assiduously for other game. The natives say that the lions are shy of white men, and that as soon as they see them, in the bush they do not wait to be discovered, but slink oil at once. Even in districts where it is a common thing to see their fresh spoor and where they are seen by natives, a sportsman desirous of adding a lion to his bag may spend many days in searching for them, and then be disappointed in not even seeing one, far lees getting a shot. Man-Eating Specimens. Lions are very intelligent,, and the way their hunting for food is carried on shows considerable cunning. The man-eating lions will often travel over large districts, taking a victim from one village one night, and another from a village some 10 miles off the following night. - When a lion takes to man-eating nothing will turn him irom it. Once having killed and eaten a native his usual subsequent procedure is to sneak into a village at sunset, whan the natives are sitting round their little fires gossiping. He then approaches a group, and makes a sudden spring from behind a hut on to the back of a selected victim. At once there is a frenzied outcry from the others, who bolt in all direction.?. Meantime the lion bounds off with hi* capture like a cat with a mouse.

Dr. Dunbar-Brunton has much to say of many of the other wild beasts of Central Africa. Leopards, he tells us, are common enough everywhere. Unless wounded, they seldom attack human beings, but when wounded, they become exceedingly ferocious, and will invariably charge. They are extraordinarily quick in their movements, and make for 'the face or head with their claws, while they endeavour to bite the throat of the person ihey have attacked. In a few moments they can do terrible injury with 'their claws. Leopards, Dr. Dunbar-Brunton says, will not take to man-eating, unless driven by extreme hunger, and instances of this kind are very rare, as are unprovoked attacks upon human beings.—Westminster Gazette.