THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPORT.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—In your review of "The Encyclopedia of Sport" you quote textually a statement of Mr. Selous's "that lions pre- pare their food," and remark that this is new. Allow me to say that this will be news indeed to others who have had an po:tunity of seeing the noble animal at home. What I and others have seen in North-East Africa is the lion feeding on the fleshy part of the carcase, generally the thigh, and when he had left, the jackals and hyenas scrambling for the remains ; the jackals, more numerous, holding on to the carcase, whilst the cowardly hyenas made dashes at the offal, and ended in dragging it away. I never saw a lion even touch offal, and this division of remains was always the case whatever the carcase was, whether man or animal. The country I was in afforded exceptional opportunities for study, as it was rocky a-id bare, and I lost many good horses of which lions are greedy. I may add that, owing probably to the high altitudes, the manes, without attaining great length, covered the neck, and a fine fringe extended from the chin to the under parts. What struck me most, in comparing the wild animal with the tame, was the extreme leanness of the former. My huntsman —a most experienced man, a native hero, who faced a lion with a shield and a spear only—attributes the leanness to the great exertions of the lion in providing food for his young ; and, indeed, I once met a lion dragging a calf many miles from the herd he had taken it from, and which I reached afterwards ; but I think the main reason is the scarcity of water, the great distances they have to travel for it, and the wear-and-tear of fighting, which also contributes to the damaging of their manes. At close quarters they tilted the head back between the shoulders showing the full range of teeth of the upper jaw, but used r.:sinly their
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