NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



Pushing the branches aside with his right arm to 

 obtain a clearer view, the cat, without any warning, 

 sprang at him. He raised his arm to save his face, 

 but the ferocious animal drove its claws into his 

 arm and shoulder and buried its teeth deeply into 

 the muscles of the forearm, and held on as grimly 

 as a bulldog. The man actually staggered to the 

 homestead, a distance of over two hundred yards, 

 with the cat fastened on to his arm, and its claws 

 tearing viciously at his side. In this instance, 

 too, the head had to be severed from the body of 

 the animal, and the jaws forced open with a sharp- 

 pointed piece of iron. Unfortunately blood- 

 poisoning set in a week or two after the occurrence, 

 and the farmer died. 



The Rooi-kat sometimes attacks and kills full- 

 grown ostriches, both at night and in broad day- 

 light, usually when the birds are sitting on their 

 eggs. A farmer of my acquaintance lost an ostrich 

 cock which he had purchased for ^80. It was 

 taking its turn on a nest of eggs in a paddock one 

 night, when a Caracal sprang upon it and crushed 

 its neckbones to pulp, and dined off a portion of 

 the body. The carcase was subsequently injected 

 with a solution of strychnine, and the cat, returning 

 to feed again the following night, was poisoned, 

 and its body was found at a distance of a hundred 

 yards from the remains of the dead ostrich. 



On another occasion when staying at a farm I 

 heard a shout from one of the farm labourers, and 



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