NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



it retires underground. On the Karoo where the 

 vegetation is scanty it contents itself with forming 

 a covering of twigs sufhciently close to the ground 

 to retire under out of the heat of the sun. In the 

 midst of this the Otomys has its burrow. These 

 subterranean burrows, however, are of no avail 

 against a snake, whose long sinuous body glides 

 down the hole to its innermost recesses. 



In the underground burrows the females make 

 their nests of dry grass, or twigs and leaves, which 

 they prepare by nipping and shredding to a suitable 

 fineness. In these nests the young are born and 

 reared. The Bush Otomys is slightly larger and 

 somewhat darker in colour than the Vley Otomys. 

 It can, however, easily be distinguished by an 

 examination of the front or incisor teeth. In the 

 Vley Otomys both the upper and lower front teeth 

 are deeply grooved from the base to the tips, right 

 down the fronts. On the contrary, an examination 

 of the same teeth in the Bush Otomys will show 

 that the upper incisors are lightly grooved towards 

 their outer margins, but that the lower incisor teeth 

 are not grooved at all. 



BRANTS' OTOMYS 



{Otomys brant si) 



Brants' Otomys is an inhabitant of the sandy 

 wastes of Namaqualand and South-West Africa, 



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