THE ZooLogistT—May, 1875. 4445 
issues from its cover, and commits great havoc amongst the 
planter’s crops, especially the sugar-cane, from which it derives its 
name. Many people are prejudiced against using the flesh of this 
animal as food, owing to its rat-like form, but if scalded and served 
up like a sucking-pig it would hardly be known from it. To show 
how loosely the spines are attached to the skin, it may be worth 
mentioning that the Kafirs pluck them before cooking, as they 
would a bird. The other day one of these creatures poisoned him- 
self by eating a sweet potato containing strychnine, which we had 
set for wild pigs. It is said that poisoned animals always make for 
the nearest water: we found the cane-rat dead beside a stream a con- 
siderable distance from the spot where it had eaten the poison, This 
year, after very heavy rain, we discovered a number of these animals 
drowned in the holes made by ant-bears. It is sometimes called 
the “coast rat,” not being found far from the sea. The cane rat is 
so prolific that it would soon overrun the country were it not kept 
in check by birds and animals of prey, as well as by the larger 
snakes. We used to set steel traps for them, but they generally 
contrived to make their escape minus a leg. The Kafirs have a 
more effectual way of taking them in spring nooses. In certain 
places where these rats cannot find sufficient shelter above ground, 
they are said to burrow and form excavations almost as extensive 
as those of the mole. 
R. B. & J. D. S. Woopwarp. 
(To be continued.) 
The Dokos of South Africa: Explanatory Note. 
As might have been anticipated, my having associated the 
Dokos of Beke with the Sokos of Livingstone has led to numerous 
enquiries, as well as requests, that I would give further and more 
precise information respecting the former. In compliance, I offer 
the following, not by any means as satisfactory evidence, but as 
the best I am able to procure. In both instances these dis- 
tinguished travellers appear to have derived their information from 
natives. Livingstone, however, is a step in advance, having seen 
and possessed a juvenile Soko. Both travellers seemed to place 
reliance in the details they obtained. 
The Dokos“are a race for a knowledge of whom we are indebted 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. x. 2a 
