Habits. 



BABOONS. 133 



The habits of this species appear to be very similar to those of its 

 North African cousin, since we read that it goes in large troops, the 

 members of which scramble up the rocks when their territories are invaded, and, 

 having gained a safe refuge, seat themselves gravely down to gaze upon the strangers. 

 In climbing up the rocky cliffs they are often much assisted by the tendrils of the 

 creeping plants with which so many of the South African crags are clothed. Writing 

 of the kind of scenery among which these animals dwell, the great African hunter, 

 Gordon Gumming, says : " I continued my march through a glorious country of hill 

 and dale, throughout which water was abundant. Beautifully wooded hills and 

 mountains stretched away on every side ; some of the mountains were particularly 



THE CHACMA BABOON (\ nat. size). 



grand and majestic, their summits being surrounded by steep precipices and abrupt 

 parapets of rock, the abodes of whole colonies of black-faced baboons, which, 

 astonished to behold such novel intruders upon their domains, leisurely descended 

 the craggy mountain-sides for a nearer inspection of our caravan." It is said that 

 there are instances where these animals have rolled down stones from the heights 

 on a passing caravan, although there is no proof that such missiles were not 

 merely fragments of rock accidentally detached. 



The late Professor Moseley, who fell in with chacmas when at the Cape, 

 during the Challenger expedition, states that they " live especially about the sea- 

 cliffs and steep slopes leading down from there to the sea ; but they are to be met 

 with also on the open moorland above. They live in droves or clans of thirty, 



