THE GOLDEN MOLE OF 

 SOUTH AFRICA 



OWING to the dearth of illustrated books of a 

 popular nature on the animal life of South Africa 

 and to the fact that Economic Natural History is 

 not systematically taught in our schools, the genera 

 public take little, if any, interest in the ways and 

 habits of the denizens of veld, forest, mountain and 

 stream ; and mammals, birds and reptiles eminently 

 useful to the human race are, in consequence, 

 wantonly destroyed. 



The average man does not use his reasoning 

 faculties overmuch in the study of the animal life 

 around him. He is, as a general rule, a most 

 careless observer, and therefore forms hasty and 

 erroneous conclusions. For instance, he observes 

 one of the hawk tribe swoop upon a chicken and 

 carry it off, or perchance a Secretary Bird is seen 

 to kill a young hare, and ever after Hawks and 

 Secretary Birds are shot at sight as vermin. 



The little Mole or Kruipmolletje is another of 

 our animal friends which is bitterly persecuted, 

 owing to the popular but erroneous belief that it 

 eats the root crops. 



There are a good many species of Moles, and a 

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