WHEN THE LIONS DRINK

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4826, 6 May 1925, Page 4

WHEN THE LIONS DRINK

NIGHT AT A WATER HOLE. Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton has a fascinating article in the “Cornhiir oh night shooting in* Central Africa.In it lie describes a"'nightly wait in concealment at a. water hole. Very soon after isundbwn lions began to airiv'i singly—never more than two together—and would appear at irregular intervals , all through' the night until just before daylight. Its was most remarkable how the approach of f< lion was heralded by a general hush. Some hyaenas, and a jackal 'or two, might be down at the water, snuffling and nosing .making a good deal of Suddenly there won,ld be dead silence, aud in an instant the Whole neighbourhood of the pool would be deserted. After a minute or .two of this eerie quiet a bushbu.ck 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 thsee lions which impressed me perhaps as much as anything else which 1 observed about their habits, was the extreme caution which they displayed in approaching the watei. They would walk round and round,. scrutinising the vicinity from, all feides, during a period of five minutes to a quarter of an hour ; and, when they had at last satisfied themselves that all was clear, they womd walk straight down to the water, take not more than half a dozen laps sit bp. like cats, on the brim for a few seconds more, and then quietly and unhesitatingly walk 'straight away. The first night I sat I faded sufficiently to camouflage the left bank 0 an “angerib” on which I was reclining. A lion came quietly along under rho shadow bf the trees, and, thong was not aware of . any movement, when about 20 yards distant he suddenly halted, gave one growl, and made off at full speed. Thus was ■ib..-,ut midnight, and nothing else came near the water for the rest 0 that- night. Another night, about 10 o’clock, a leopard arrived, and, haying stared about fpr a bit, .Went down to the water. He was standing pvei the. hole, gazing into it in a medi J a ’ tive 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 nave *>een me but could not conceive how I had come to betray myself. There was no irind, and I was sure not only that 1 had made no movement, but that the branches arranged around my "angerib“ completely hid me from sigh,. 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,” aspve 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.