400 LARGE GAME. chap. VIII. 



colour is, as its name implies, of a redder tinge. It is far 

 from common, even in those spots it most frequents, and 

 though well worth shooting is too rare to afford much 

 sport. 



Among the smaller animals there are one or two that 

 deserve a passing notice, although not belonging to the 

 antelope genus. Ant-eaters, porcupines, rock-rabbits, 

 and cane-rats are all common in different localities. The 

 ant-eater, like the white ant on which it lives, is found 

 everywhere, but being a nocturnal prowler is very rarely 

 seen, although evidences of its presence occur every few 

 yards in the shape of half-formed holes in the ground, 

 seemingly made for no purpose whatever, and holes in 

 the sides of the ant-hills. I once saw one while shooting 

 on an open flat in Swaziland ; the half-bred pointer that 

 was with me was ranging rather widely when it suddenly 

 came to a dead point, but almost immediately afterwards 

 began to draw in. I shouted to it, and ran towards it as 

 fast as I could, but it paid no attention to me, and in 

 another second an animal which I did not recognise, but 

 which from its rounded back and general appearance 

 looked like some kind of pig, jumped up out of the grass 

 before it, and after being smartly chased for a couple of 

 hundred yards took refuge in one of the numerous holes 

 which covered the plain. On my reaching the spot I at 

 once saw by the marks of its five-toed foot that it was an 

 ant-eater, and as I had never seen one before I deter- 

 mined to get this one out. I first tried smoking it out, 

 getting great bundles of grass and shoving them down the 

 mouth of the hole, and after setting fire to them, placing 

 my coat over the outside to prevent the smoke escaping. 



