Library of Cryptozoology

Being in advance of the wagons, I suddenly came upon an animal, which, though considerably smaller, much resembled a lion in appearance. Under ordinary circumstances, I should certainly have taken it for a young lion; but I had been formerly given to understand that, in this part of Africa, there exists a quadruped which, in regard to shape and color, is like the lion, but, in most other respects, totally distinct from it. The beast in question is said to be nocturnal in its habits, to be timid and harmless, and to prey for the most part on the small species of antelopes. In the native language it is called Onguirira, and would, as far as I could see, have answered the description of a puma. As it was going straight away from me, I did not think it prudent to fire.

[On 18 March] Andersson started what he thought was a puma. The natives talk a great deal about such an animal existing; they describe it as a very shy creature, and hardly ever moving about in the daytime, of the same colour and general shape as a lion, but smaller, and with no mane. The animal Andersson caught a glimpse of answered the description perfectly. It might have been a young lion, but its movements were not those of a cub. It jumped up close by him, but was among the thick bushes and out of sight before there was time to fire.

There have been, over a term of years, many reports of a snake that has a red comb and wattles like a cock, some of the narrators adding for good measure that it crows like a rooster, that bane of all drowsy suburbanites. As far a we can gather the story originated in Angola, spreading into South West Africa, and Rhodesia. A good account was sent to use from Southern Rhodesia. Our informant [Dennis A. Walker], when showing to one of his African boys some pictures of snakes, was asked if he had a picture of "the snake with the cock's comb and wattles". When he denied the existence of such a creature, the boy related that one day when hunting in the M'toko range, his dogs surrounded a small tree in which he saw a huge snake, which slid to the ground and raised the fore part of its body after the manner of a cobra, to a height of about six feet. Not surprisingly, he turned and ran, but not before he had seen that the snake's head was adorned with a red comb and wattl...