136 PAPIO 



when opportunity offers ; in some parts of its range where Krantzes are 

 few it even sleeps in trees. It associates in troops of varying numbers, 

 up to about one hundred individuals ; when moving from place to place 

 the old males are usually seen on the outskirts, and always form a rear 

 guard ; also when resting a sentinel or two is always placed on top of a 

 rock in order to warn the troop of approaching danger. 



"They rest at night in crevices of the Krantzes, coming out in the 

 day only. They are frequently captured by surrounding their lairs 

 before daylight, when all are asleep. The chief enemy of the baboon 

 apart from man is the leopard, which, however, seems to confine his 

 attention to females and young ones, as an adult old male would 

 probably be a good match even for a leopard. 



"The pace of a baboon is not very rapid ; on level ground they can 

 easily be overhauled by ordinary dogs, but in rough country and on 

 hillsides they can hold their own with great ease. They move with the 

 first part of the tail somewhat up-curved, and the last two-thirds hang- 

 ing straight down. 



" The cry of this animal is a deep hoarse bark, and is compared by 

 Prof. Moseley, who observed their habits in the neighborhood of 

 Simons Town, to a German 'hoch' much prolonged. 



"The baboon may be described as omnivorous ; the fruit and leaves 

 of the prickly pear, the more thorny ones being preferred, wild fruits, 

 berries, and bulbs, and the white sweetish pith at the lower ends of the 

 aloes form a great part of its diet. Insects, scorpions, centipedes and even 

 lizards are eagerly sought after by turning over loose stones, and Mr. 

 Distant relates how when first searching for insects in the Transvaal, 

 he was intensely surprised to find stones turned over before his arrival, 

 as if some other 'geodephagous coleopterist had anticipated him' ; 

 this he afterwards found was due to the insect-searching attributes 

 of the baboons. 



"Mr. Cloete informs me," says Mr. Sclater, "that wild honey is 

 also a favorite article of diet, he has himself observed a male Chacma 

 robbing a bee's nest in a hole in the ground ; the method pursued by the 

 animal was to rush at the nest, seize a comb, and after dropping it a 

 few times and rolling it about to get the bees off, to carry it away a 

 short distance so as to be able to devour it out of the way of the 

 infuriated bees. 



"The baboons cause great annoyance to the farmers ; they fre- 

 quently devastate orchards and fruit gardens, they suck and devour 



