The natural disposition of all animals to get their food as easily as possible has led lions everywhere to prey upon domestic cattle which, in a region where they are numerous, suffer nightly despoliation. Lions that have discov ered this comparatively easy method of supply ing their wants soon learn that mankind is equally, or even more, readily obtainable, and become "man-eaters." Beasts so sophisticated must be put out of the way; and barbarians organize great bands of men who learn the lair of the animal, surround it and effect the ani mal's death by any rude means possible. "Man eaters' are generally old, but occasionally they are in the prime of life and vigor. During the building of the Uganda Railway two lions thus attained celebrity through their depredations among the construction gangs, until shot by the engineer in charge, and were known as the "man-eaters" of Tsavo. Some savage hunters boldly and skilfully overcome the lion almost in single combat, with rude weapons; but, with perhaps the exception of the tiger, he is the most dangerous of quarries. A charging lion will take half a dozen shots from a heavy gun, each of which ultimately prove fatal, and yet have strength left to maul an assailant. There are four methods of stalking: tracking on foot; hunting on horseback and dismounting to shoot; hunting with dogs, and shooting from shelters by water holes or over hills. The incessant persecution to which the lion is subjected when ever a region begins to become civilized has exterminated it over a large part of the former domain of the species. When men began to hunt in Europe in the Stone Age they found there lions whose remains, entombed in the floors of caves, are called those of "cave lions' (F. speltrus), but which present no important differences from the modern species. Within the time of written history lions dwelt in the mountains of southwestern Europe, and many of those seen in Rome in the time of the earlier Cresars were obtained from the Danube Valley and Asia Minor. The supply was soon ex hausted, however, and the later demand was met by importations from the Caucasus and southward, but mainly from northern Africa.
In the arenas of ancient Rome large numbers of lions were frequently exhibited. Sulla, the dictator, once exhibited 100 of these animals, and Pompey presented 600 in the circus; Ha drian caused 100 to be destroyed at one exhibi tion, and others of the emperors and consuls were equally prodigal. In order to provide these great quantities laws were promulgated protecting the beasts in the Carthaginian prov inces, to the great detriment of agriculture there and risk of the peasantry, and breeding establishments were created to produce enough lions to meet the imperial demand. The taming and training of lions have continued ever since, and to-day this great shaggy cat is the most impressive, if not the most intelligent, of the troupe which the menagerie showman gathers about him. For a period almost all the lions exhibited in zoological gardens and shows have been those born in captivity, where the species breeds freely.
At the present day few lions exist north of the Soudan and Abyssinia; a few are left in the recesses of the Atlas Mountains; British and Portuguese East Africa and Rhodesia are the chief hunting grounds left; and they have become extinct or scarce in the civilized regions of South Africa. In 1850 the last lion in the vicinity of Cape Town was shot. They no longer exist in Asia Minor, but are numerous in the extensive marshes along the lower Euphrates and Tigris, and thence occur at in tervals to the valleys of the Indus, where a few still remain in the wilder deserts of Cutch and Gujerat. Formerly they were known over all northern and western India.
Books of special value relating to lions and lion hunting are Flower and Lydekker's (Mam mals, Living and Blanford's (Zoolo gies) (of India, Persia and Abyssinia) ; Ander son's (The Lion and the Elephant); Porter's (Wild ; the hunting narratives of Gor don Cumming, Gerard, Harris, Holub, Baker and Selous; Lyddeker, (Game Animals of Africa) (London 1908) ; Patterson, 'The Man Eaters of Tsavo) (ib. 1908) •, Pease, Sir A., (Book of the Lion' (ib. 1914) ; Roosevelt and Heller, (Life History of African Game Ani mals) (New York 1914).