374 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



fore legs, and through the hinder ones, and have the meat 

 in a moment, leaving the cat wondering where it was gone. 

 Jemmy had by this time taken it into a place of safety. 

 Under the table in Mr. Soarle's office there is just room for 

 him to crawl ; here the angry eat could not, of course, fol- 

 low him. In this retreat he would finish up what he had 

 stolen, and then emerge licking his lips, and probably 

 laughing to himself at the disappointed face of the cat. 



11. Jemmy was always fond of getting under anything 

 or in any kind of hole, and his great delight was to get 

 into a boot, and when he got to the end, scratching it as 

 though he wanted to get farther into the burrow. Fre- 

 quently I found my boots going round the room, propelled, 

 apparently, by some internal machinery. This machinery 

 was Master Jemmy. Jemmy was a greedy little fellow. 

 John could not bring up any kind of food into my room 

 without Jemmy. He would watch the cook broiling the 

 chop down stairs, and, when John brought it up, would fol- 

 low close to his heels, and what between Jemmy's pretty, 

 begging mariner, the monkey's plaintive cries, and the par- 

 rot's demand, it often happens that I get very little of the 



1 * Frank Buckland. 



THE AARD-VARK. 



1. Tnis animal, known in science as the orycteropus, 

 belongs to the order Edentata, or insect-eaters. It is a na- 

 tive of South Africa, and is called by the Dutch settlers 

 the aard-vark, or earth-hog. It is of heavy build, with 

 arched back, like a pig, which animal it further resembles 

 in that its skin is sparsely strewed with hairs. But its 

 very long ears, instead of being pendent like those of the 

 pig, rise like horns on both sides of the head. Neither is 

 the tail slender or twisted into a corkscrew curl ; on the 



