KLOOF AND KARROO. 



hoek Mountains, and the scenery around us was 

 simply magnificent.. Abruptly turning a corner of 

 the road we in the Cape cart came suddenly upon 

 a very fine tiger-cat, or serval (felis serval), the 

 boschkatte (bush-cat) of the Boers. This is one of 

 the most beautiful of the numerous tribe of the 

 smaller Felidce that haunt Cape Colony and annoy 

 the farmers, and is beautifully coloured in yellow 

 and black. The cat was, however, too quick for us, 

 and escaped into the dense wall of bush veldt that 

 lined the road, before we had time to shoot. Towards 

 evening, between Blaauw Krantz and Roode Wal — 

 our outspan for the night — we sighted three or four 

 brace of wild guinea fowl or pintados {Numida 

 mitrata) running along the road in front of us. We 

 at once pulled up, and one of our number — Bob — 

 charged his breech-loader, got out of the cart, and 

 softly followed them round a bend of the road, which 

 was here composed of deep sand. Very quickly we 

 heard the report of both barrels, and, driving on, met 

 the gunner carrying a dead bird. The guinea fowls 

 • — always great pedestrians — would not get up, so he 

 had had a couple of long shots at them running, and 

 had luckily knocked one over at sixty yards. This 

 guinea fowl is plentiful in the densely-bushed country 

 near the Sunday and Fish Rivers ; it is an excellent 

 eating bird, bigger and handsomer than the tame 

 species, and may sometimes be secured towards 

 evening while roosting, as it does, out of the way 

 of wild cats and other enemies. This was the only 

 game we obtained this day, but the dust and wind 

 were much against sport, and travelling, as we were, 

 between high walls of dense prickly jungle we had not 

 many opportunities — such as we had abundantly 



