THE met OR KUP MSSifi 



the early hours of the morning and evening, before 

 darkness has set in. It also ventures forth on moon- 

 light nights in search of food. 



During the day it basks in the sun on the most 

 exposed rocks in the neighbourhood of its lair. Its 

 diet is purely vegetarian, and consists of the leaves, 

 tender shoots, bark and grasses growing in the 

 vicinity of its home.' When vegetable gardens 

 "are in close proximity to their haunts, the Dassies 

 occasionally venture down to them and do some 

 damage, but unless severely pressed by hunger during 

 times of prolonged drought, they rarely venture 

 from their rocky retreats, for, if surprised fifty or a 

 hundred yar-ds from any rocky place, they can easily be 

 run down by a man on foot and captured or killed. 

 On several occasions we have succeeded in heading 

 them off from the rocks, when we had suddenly 

 surprised them a short distance from their rocky 

 habitat.. In each instance we captured them after 

 a short, sharp run. At Bethelsdorp, near Port 

 Elizabeth, the Hottentots have vegetable gardens 

 on a narrow strip of ground between two rocky hills. 

 The rocks descend down to within a dozen yards or 

 so of the gardens, and although these rocks are 

 swarming with Dassies, the Hottentots informed me 

 they never did any harm to the vegetables. 



Although the Rock Dassie does not fulfil any 

 important mission in life from an economic point 

 of view, ias far as humanity is concerned, yet it does 

 no harm ; and the wanton destruction of these 



VOL. Ill 225 15 



