NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



the whole of the troop to disappear one by one 

 into the capacious stomach of their arch-enemy, 

 which never neglects an opportunity of reducing 

 their numbers and thus fulfilling its mission in 

 life. 



In the dense forests and dark, secluded kloofs, far 

 from the habitations of civilised man, the leopard 

 hunts its prey by day as well as by night. 



I happened to be the witness of one of those 

 tragedies which occur daily and nightly in the 

 animal world, and which at times make humane 

 men wonder why it was necessary in the evolution 

 of life that in order that one creature may live 

 another's life must be taken. The struggle for the 

 survival of the fittest is indeed a terrible and re- 

 lentless one in the lower animal world. I was lying 

 concealed in some dense scrub watching with field- 

 glasses the antics of a troop of Vervet Monkeys 

 on a low branch of an old forest giant, the top of 

 which was covered with a dense growth of creepers 

 which had pushed their way up from the ground 

 to light and life. Presently I observed a large 

 yellow body drop like a stone from the dense foli- 

 age at the top of the tree, and next instant the 

 monkeys, chattering and screaming in abject terror, 

 vanished amid the surrounding bushes. A leopard 

 had dropped down in the midst of several monkeys 

 on a branch, and striking out fiercely, it succeeded 

 in hooking two of them with the large curved claws 

 of its fore limbs, and with its victims it fell with 



122 



