a Pair of Tame Ground-Homh'ills, 85 



selfish — food-liunter than Pat, lacks iimch of his playfulness, 

 and, if caressed, sometimes bears it with patience, at others 

 wriggles away and marches off in the most unsociable 

 manner. It is, I must admit, "she" rather than Pat who 

 would be gnilty of the callous sentiments attributed by the 

 natives to the male — *' FTamha, Kaducho ! "" (Go, 3^ou have 

 been threatening to for a long time !) — and, when the young 

 one is reported as lost, " JWZico, ndidzongera tsherol^^ (That's 

 good, I economize in food-finding). 



Pat seems to have quite a sense of humour. With a better 

 memory, or time to rack it, I could probably give many 

 anecdotes in support of this statement, but the following 

 must suflfice : — 



" April 21, 1911. — Pat . . . ate one of the large silver- 

 spined larvae of the Saturniid moth, Gynanina et/ira, Westw. 

 He accepted a second, and ran it through his bill, but instead 

 of eating it, he dashed off with it to the guinea-fowl run. 

 Ariived there, he placed liis head on one side in his most 

 enticing manner and, bowing to the inmatps, offered them 

 the larva. Both guinea-fowls at once rushed forward, 

 craned through the meshes of the wire netting, and struggled 

 desperately to seize it. Patrick was most courtly and 

 generous in demeanour, and had the air of saying, ' Why on 

 earth don't you take it then ? ' ; but he continued always to 

 keep it a fraction of an inch beyond their reach. Finally, 

 tiring of this, he ran back to [)lay the same trick on Biddy, 

 but she was too quick for him, and, after a tug of war, 

 wrested the larva away and swallowed it." 



Whetlier Pat's measurement of a kitten was merely 

 humorous or of a more severely practical nature, is 

 doubtful, but it was extremely ludicrous to watch. We had 

 just been given a kitten, and on meeting it for the first 

 time, Pat eyed it well, and then, using his widely-opened 

 bill after the fashion of a pair of compasses, and bowing 

 each time in coming into position, measured it across, down- 

 wards, and ("h.b." of mammal-collectors) approximately 

 from the head to the base of the tail, then looked at it 

 bard for the second time, and marched awav. Had the 



