DELALANDE’S FOX 
little chum, and what he said to that farmer had 
better not be repeated. 
This species of fox was first brought to notice 
by a French traveller of the name of Delalande, 
and was named Delalande’s Fox in consequence. 
It is nocturnal, but occasionally ventures forth by 
day in the more secluded parts of the country. So 
great is its fear of man that when living in his vicinity 
it is strictly nocturnal. It is an innocent, inoffen- 
sive animal, and there are no authenticated instances 
of it ever having attacked domestic animals. It is 
a creature which certainly should be protected, for 
the reason that it destroys rats, mice, and noxious 
insects. In those districts where the termite or 
‘White Ant” abounds it subsists almost, if not 
entirely, upon these insects. However, whether an 
animal is useful or not does not seem to weigh in 
the slightest with many people, whose sole idea of 
the lower animals is that they furnish a legitimate 
means of gratifying a destructive animal instinct 
which is inherited from our barbarian ancestors. 
The native races in South Africa hunt and kill the 
animals and birds of the country indiscriminately, 
and unless this senseless slaughter is checked, num- 
bers of birds and animals which are fairly common 
to-day will, within the next fifty years, be either 
extremely rare, or actually extinct in South 
Africa. j 
Delalande’s Fox, for instance, which is so good 
a friend to man in a variety of ways, is relentlessly 
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