The Ant-Eater 67 



of the year. Reeds and aquatic plants which line 

 its banks attract innumerable mosquitoes : the reason 

 why we keep some distance away. 



Though this time of the year is fitted for the 

 pursuit of the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the 

 buffalo, other animals are never seen, hidden as they 

 are by the density of the vegetation and warned of 

 your approach by the noise of your progress through 

 the grass. Thus, I have the greatest difficulty in 

 finding an antelope or a wild-boar. On the other 

 hand, during the dry season, when everything is 

 burnt up, you can find as many as you like, provided, 

 of course, you take the trouble to look for them. 

 The first bit of sport we had in the Kapoche district 

 is worthy of mention. 



One dull, rainy morning, we see on an open space 

 an animal which most of us have never seen before. 

 We cannot distinguish it very clearly, and as it turns 

 its back we make all kinds of conjectures. I see 

 two large rabbit - like and flexible ears, a round 

 back, and a fleshy tail. Can it be a kangaroo ? 

 Not wishing to move, and run the risk of frighten- 

 ing it away, I aim at its back in the direction 

 of the heart. It falls dead on its side. Tambarika, 

 while his comrades and I are examining in astonish- 

 ment this curious animal, recognises it immediately 

 to be an ant-eater. A white skin with long, scanty, 

 blackish-brown fur, a tapering snout similar to that 

 of a pig with a hole at the end but no mouth, a 

 tongue a yard long like a whip-thong, ears like those 

 of a rabbit, enormous nails on its paws, a powerful 



