NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



keys raided an orchard at a farm where I was staying. 

 The havoc wrought was most disheartening to the 

 owner. The ground was strewn with fruit, knocked 

 down by the jumping of the monkeys amongst the 

 branches ; hundreds of apples and other kinds of 

 fruit, with pieces bitten out of them, also lay around. 

 The human race as a whole has much to thank the 

 pioneer farmer for. It is he to a great extent who 

 makes it possible for others of his race to colonise the 

 earth. Settling in a new country, he is beset, as a 

 general rule, by savage hordes of uncivilised men ; 

 carnivorous animals, which seek to rob him of his 

 stock ; and hosts of other animals which hover 

 around, ever ready to appropriate the produce of his 

 fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens. Unfortu- 

 nately he is not always alive to the economic value 

 of many forms of life around him, and consequently 

 destroys, and allows his children and employees to 

 destroy, birds, mammals, and reptiles which are his 

 most valuable allies. 



The Addo Bush near Port Elizabeth is the home 

 of a number of troops of Vervet Monkeys. In the 

 winter time they may be seen in scores sunning 

 themselves on the tree-tops. During the months 

 of December and January I observed numbers of 

 females with babies clinging to them. There are 

 no streams or springs of water in this extensive 

 bushland, and, during times of drought, the apes 

 are so hard pressed for water that they venture 

 right up to the homesteads of farmers in search of 

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