WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



animal which spends its days underground. It is a 

 grotesquely formed creature; it has, as Professor Mat-, 

 schie says, the snout of a pig, the head of an ant-bear, 

 the ears of an ass, the legs of an armadillo, and the body 

 of a kangaroo — a kind of a composite animal such as 

 the imagination of fanciful artists, painters, and writers 

 may conceive. With its long tail and its sharp claws, 

 it beats and tears to pieces the ant-hills, and with its 

 long and sticky tongue it collects myriads of ants and 

 swallows them. 



I was very anxious to take flash-light pictures of this 

 strange animal, but soon gave up all hope of success. 

 During the dry season the " aard-vark," as the Dutch 

 colonists call the earth-hog, sleeps in the remote recesses 

 of its ramified burrow, and it is impossible to capture 

 it there by trapping it or digging for it. Only during 

 the wet nights of the rainy season does it issue into the 

 steppe to feed on termites. 



The earths or burrows, which are often very deep 

 and wide-spreading, are a constant danger to hunters, 

 as the openings are frequently concealed beneath 

 bushes and are then difficult to avoid. Often I sud- 

 denly felt myself sinking into the ground up to my 

 waist. 



I never succeeded in even seeing the earth-hog in a 

 state of liberty, but I acquired a few skins and skeletons 

 from the natives and brought them to Germany, where 

 there were only a few mounted specimens. Captain 



256 



