SOUTH AFRICA 35 



tongue except when in pursuit of game. The 

 lycaons are among the most ungainly of animals, 

 and one would never believe from their appearance 

 that they are capable of pulling down some of the 

 swiftest antelope in the veldt. Sir Percy Fitzpatrick 

 in Jock of the Bush Veldt describes their method. 

 They first scatter widely over the chosen area where 

 game is located, then one buck is chosen as the 

 easiest victim, and cutting it out from the herd 

 they follow that one, and that alone, with remorse- 

 less, invincible persistency. One or two of the 

 pack take up the chase, giving their victim no 

 moment's rest for breath, from time to time 

 emitting their peculiarly weird call. Others of 

 the pack, posted afar, head the buck off, to turn 

 it back again ; the fresh ones then take up the 

 chase and the first pair drop out to take a rest 

 and wait. Once a buck is selected he is doomed. 

 Their method is something akin to the remorse- 

 less pertinacity with which a stoat hunts a rabbit. 

 I have followed a stoat hunting a rabbit and seen 

 him pay no attention to other rabbits passed 

 close by in the chase ; curiously, these rabbits 

 appeared to take no notice of him. When the 

 hunted rabbit realises that there is no escape 

 he gives in, and with pitiful squeals awaits his 

 pursuer. If he would only stop and fight, a 

 different tale could be told, as a stoat finds out 



