A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 27 



covered. Here, too, we first saw the meercat, a 

 singular little animal belonging to the Viverrinse. 

 Its habits are somewhat similar to the prairie dog of 

 North America. It lives in colonies in underground 

 burrows, which honeycomb the veldt in places, and 

 render galloping rather dangerous to hunters. There 

 are two or more varieties ; those seen on this 

 occasion were little gray fellows who might be 

 noticed sitting up on their hind legs, just outside 

 their burrows, looking shrewdly about them. Upon 

 the approach of danger they dive headlong into 

 their holes with extraordinary rapidity. 



Besides the koorhaans we were exceedingly for- 

 tunate in the afternoon in bagging one of the noblest 

 birds in all South Africa — the paauw of the Dutch 

 colonists, otherwise known as the kori bustard (the 

 Oiis kori of Burchell). This, as I suppose, the 

 finest bustard in the world, formerly abounded on 

 every open karroo of the Cape Colony, but is now 

 much scarcer. We sighted the paauw (literally 

 peacock — one of the absurd names of the ancient 

 Boers) shortly after an afternoon outspan, feeding 

 quietly some 300 or 400 yards away on the veldt 

 not far from some mimosa bushes, in and , out of 

 which he wandered. Instantly we stopped the carts, 

 and Bob and I, taking our rifles, made a detour, 

 and then crept very cautiously after him, stopping 

 as he emerged from shelter and making progress as 

 he occasionally became hidden. At length favoured 

 by the ground, we had arrived within sixty or seventy 

 yards, and, taking steady aim, fired. To our 

 intense satisfaction the huge bird fell forward, picked 

 himself up, fluttered twenty or thirty paces, and 

 then fell dead. Racing up to him we secured our 



