coveys had packed there, and for what purpose, and 

 whether they came every evening, were questions 

 which one would like answered now ; but they were 

 not of sufficient interest then to encourage a second 

 visit another evening. The birds sailed quietly into 

 the little wood, and many of them alighted on branches 

 of the larger trees. It is the only time I have seen a 

 partridge in a tree ; but when one comes to think it 

 out, it seems common-sense that, in a country teeming 

 with vermin and night-prowlers, all birds should sleep 

 off the ground. Perhaps they do ! 



There were numbers of little squirrel-like creatures 

 there too. Our fellows used to call them ground- 

 squirrels and " tree-rats " ; because they live under- 

 ground, yet climb trees readily in search of food ; 

 they were little fellows like meerkats, with bushy 

 tails ringed in brown, black and white, of which the 

 waggon boys made decorations for their slouch hats. 



Jock wanted a go at them : they did not appear 

 quite so much beneath notice as the birds. 



Along the water's edge one came on the lagavaans, 

 huge repulsive water-lizards three to four feet long, 

 like crocodiles in miniature, sunning themselves in 

 some favourite spot in the margin of the reeds or on 

 the edge of the bank ; they give one the jumps by 

 the suddenness of their rush through the reeds and 

 plunge into deep water. 



There were otters too, big black-brown fierce 

 fellows, to be seen swimming silently close under the 

 banks. I got a couple of them, but was always nervous 

 letting Jock into the water after things, as one never 



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