KARROO BEASTS, BIRDS AND REPTILES. 263 



Zululand an Irish sentry was on guard at midnight, 

 when suddenly, close to him, the ground opened, and 

 out of it rose a ghastly living Jack-in-the-box. The 

 moonbeams shone full on the horrid form, long head, 

 and deadly-pale, calf -like face; and the man — small 

 blame to him — dropped his gun, deserted his post, and 

 fled in horror, shouting to his astonished comrades the 

 awful news that he had seen Old Nick himself ! And 

 indeed, if, on one of our moonlight strolls about the 

 farm, an ant-bear had suddenly risen in our path, I am 

 quite sure that we should have taken to our heels with 

 equal alacrity. 



The cage of the Cape ant-bear at the Zoo being 

 next to that of the American ant-eater, a good oppor- 

 tunity is afforded for observing the marked dissimilarity 

 of the two animals, which indeed could hardly be more 

 unlike each other. One of the numerous points in 

 which they differ is that the American ant-eater is 

 toothless, while the aardvaarlc possesses teeth. 



The ant-lion, so often pictured in books of natural 

 history, is common in the Karroo ; and it was a great 

 pleasure for us when, for the first time, we saw him in 

 real life, and examined his cleverly-constructed, funnel- 

 shaped trap, hollowed out in the soft, sliding sand, — 

 down which his victims tumble, to find him waiting 

 open-mouthed at the bottom. 



Talking of the ant-lion reminds one of another exca- 

 vator, still more familiar to Cape colonists, the trap-door 

 spider. His "diggings" are in the form of a perpen- 

 dicular, cylinder-shaped box, the lid of which, level with 



