A SCALY ANT-EATER. 155 



what had made it. It was simply perfect even in 

 the minutest details. 



On my way home I got several shots at Hot- 

 tentot teal, and two barrels into, not the brown, 

 but the gray of a dense flock of guinea fowl, the 

 result of which was that both myself and atten- 

 dant were pretty well loaded before getting to the 

 wagons. 



Having told Morocco in the morning that I 

 should like to purchase any queer animal that the 

 natives had, more especially a young baboon or 

 small gray monkey, I found, waiting anxiously my 

 return, a crowd, but none possessed anything worth 

 having, if I except a pangolin, or scaly ant-eater. 

 At one period these extraordinary animals were 

 common enough all over South Africa, but of late 

 years they have become scarcer ; this is the more 

 to be regretted as they are great destroyers of that 

 insect pest of the country, ants. However, the black 

 people have found out that they are a bonne bouche ; 

 thus they wage a constant war upon them, as they 

 do against the aard-vark. The body of the pangolin 

 is covered with large scales, not unlike the divisions 

 of a fir - cone, and lap over each other with the 



