212 MR. A. A. LANE 



ant-eater said to lia>'e been got locally, but it was the 

 only one which came to my notice. The hedgehog is 

 ajiparently scarce, though quite a colony of them existed 

 near the town lands of Potchefstroom some years ago. 

 Otters are probably still numerous along the Mooi River 

 and the Loop Spruit, wherever extensive reed beds afford 

 suitable cover. I do not know if more than one species 

 occur, but those I have seen Avere of a large size. Most 

 of the damage to poultry on riverside holdings attributed 

 to otters, is, I fancy, caused by the large brown muishond, 

 an animal seldom seen but probabh" plentiful in the 

 reed beds. They are almost the size of a badger with 

 thick, rather bushy, tails. Though of amphibious habits 

 and good swimmers, they do not dive like the otter when 

 pursued, but in a reed bed they are like the proverbial 

 needle in a haystack, and I have seen a small pack of 

 otter hounds the best part of two hours getting one out. 

 The last I helped to hunt and kill was on the river 

 below the Potchefstroom golf links. When close pressed 

 b}^ dogs they utter a loud cackling cry, and being stout 

 and fierce animals at bay, it needs powerful and deter- 

 mined dogs to dispatch them, as is the case with the 

 otter. 



The local otter is quite as elusive to pursue as his 

 British relative. One day, with the 4tli Hussars' hounds 

 on the Loop Spruit when in hot pursuit of a large otter, 

 Capt. Courage and myself, who were mounted, got close 

 up as he jumped off the bank and swam to the centre 

 of a pool under a steep bluff on which were a few scat- 

 tered bushes growing down to the water's edge. We 

 quickly turned up and down stream to form ^' stickle '' 

 at the shallows above and below, but though close 

 pressed by hounds, and the remainder of our party soon 

 arrived and probed every possible place of concealment, 

 we never saw him again. Otter hunting, which necessi- 

 tates driving an otter to some spot where he can be sur- 

 rounded by a crowd of keen pursuers and dogs, has been 



