NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



head through the wire mesh he retrieved sundry- 

 scraps of food from her dish, or bits which had got 

 scattered. One day Foxey's food dish was about 

 a foot in distance from the fence, and the cock, 

 watching his chance, poked his head through the 

 wire and snapped up scraps from the dish. The 

 cat made several leaps at intervals at the thief, 

 but finding that her chain jerked her back each 

 time, she sat down and deliberated. Presently she 

 took up a position as close to the dish as her chain 

 would allow, and closing her eyes she pretended 

 to sleep. Her forepaws were innocently doubled 

 up under her chest, and she seemed indifferent to 

 all outward concerns. The old rooster eyed her 

 suspiciously for quite a long while. Then he made 

 a pretence to peck at the dish. He repeated this 

 manoeuvre a dozen or more times. Evidently 

 being satisfied the cat was really asleep, he grabbed 

 ' a morsel from the dish, chuckled audibly, and 

 gulped it down. Again and yet again he did the 

 same thing, when, like a lightning flash, the cat's 

 long paw shot out, and next instant the cock's 

 headless body was tumbling about outside the fence. 

 The Serval had struck her claws deep into the 

 head of the fowl, and retracting her paw like the 

 recoil of stretched rubber, the head was jerked 

 from the body. 



On another occasion I had her confined in a 

 large aviary. In the same cage was the other 

 Serval already mentioned, which was a male, and 



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