THE CAPE DUIKER 



When hunting the Cape Duiker in Natal, a party 

 of natives and dogs are usually got together. These 

 natives are employed as beaters, and the sportsmen, 

 who are mounted, take up convenient positions on 

 the opposite side of the patch of bush the natives 

 are beating, and shoot the bucks when they break 

 cover. 



These hunts are often organised by the farmers 

 for the purpose of reducing the numbers of Duikers 

 because of their destructiveness. Several farmer 

 friends of mine were obliged to organise hunts 

 every season to rid their neighbourhood of these 

 animals, which issue forth during the hours of dark- 

 ness and eat oif the tender young plants. 



A farmer friend in Natal, thinking he had destroyed 

 or frightened off all the Duikers in his vicinity, 

 planted a ten-acre field with beans. In two nights 

 the entire field of young beans had vanished into 

 the paunches of the Duikers. 



No ordinary fence of wires will keep them out, 

 for they are adepts at jumping and squeezing through 

 small spaces. 



Duikers do not usually eat grass, but after the 

 veld has been burned and the young tender grass 

 is shooting up, they feed freely upon it. Duikers 

 having become a pest on a neighbour's estate, we 

 managed to lure them to their doom through their 

 curiosity. A hole was dug, and a shrub placed 

 at one side on the surface of the ground. Immedi- 

 ately in front of this bush an acetylene bicycle lamp 



3^ 



