NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



the eggs and young of birds of great economic 

 value. 



THE CAPE GROUND SQUIRREL ' 



{Geosciurus capensis) 



This wonderfully interesting little animal is an 

 inhabitant of what is known as the Karoo-veld, 

 which are vast arid plains in the interior parts of 

 South Africa. For hundreds of miles on every side 

 the country is dotted with mountain ridges, and 

 isolated hills surmounted with a cap of bare rock. 

 These separate hills are known as Kops or heads, 

 and the smaller ones as Kopjes or little heads. 

 They frequently stand alone or in groups out on 

 the great plains. On examination, these ridges, 

 kops and kopjes unfold to us the geological history 

 of South Africa. The scantiest of vegetation 

 covers them ."^^ This is as we should expect, for 

 torrential rains in the far-distant past have so 

 thoroughly washed their surfaces, and the dis- 

 integrating forces of air, water and electricity have 

 so effectually eaten into them, that they, to-day, 

 present to the eye a vast mass of scattered, broken 

 and waterworn boulders, pebbles and sand, amongst 

 which the hardiest forms of vegetation struggle 

 for existence. In fact, they are but skeletons of 

 their former selves, for their substance has long 

 since been scattered over the lowlands, and slowly 



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