WHEN THE LIONS DRINK.

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6598, 12 May 1925, Page 7

WHEN THE LIONS DRINK.

Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton has a fascinating article in the Cornhill on night shooting in Central Africa. In it he descriges a nightly wait in concealment at a water hole. Very soon after sundown lions began to arrive singly—never more than two together —and would appear at regular intervals all through the night until just before daylight. It was most remarkavle how the approach of a lion was heralded by a general hush. Some hyenas, and a jackal or two, might be down at the water snuffling and nosing, making a good deal of noise. Suddenly there would be dead silence, and in an instant the whole neighbourhood of the pool would be deserted. After a minute or two of this eerie quiet a bush-buck in the thickets a hundred yards away would bark sharply. Then dead silence once more, for a period of varying length. The lion was somewhere close by, but not advertising his presence; in fact, a peculiarity about these lions, which impressed me perhaps as much as anything else which I observed about their habits, was the extreme caution which they displayed in approaching die water. They would walk rouhd and round, scrutinising the vicinity from all sides, during a period of five minutes to a quarter of an hour; and, when they had at last satisfied themselves that all was clear, would walk straight down to the water, take not more than half a dozen laps, sit up, like cats, on the brim for a few seconds more, and then quietly and unhesitatingly walk straight away. The first night I sat up I failed sufficiently to camouflage the left bank of an “angerib” on which I was reclining. A lion came quietly along under the shadow of the trees, and, though I was not aware of any movement, when about 20 yards distant he suddenly halted, gave one growl, and made off at full speed. This was about midnight, and nothing else came near the water for the rest of that night. Another night, about 10 p.m., a leopard arrived, and, having stared about for a bit, went down to the water. He was standing over the hole, gazing into it in a meditative sort of way when suddenly, without the slightest warning, he stampeded furiously for some 30 or 40 yards, and stood just outside my range of vision, growling and snarling continuously.

I made certain he must have seen me, but could not conceive how I had come to betray myself. There was no wind, and I was sure, not only that I had made no movement, but that the branches arranged around my “angerib” ' completely hid me from sight. While I was speculating on these lines I suddenly became conscious that a lioness was standing exactly where the leopard had been a minute or two before. She did not “arrive,” as we understand the word; she was just suddenly “there.” She did not so much as glance at the still violently demonstrating leopard; but, after a steady stare all round, proceeded to satisfy her thirst.