NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
foothold on the balcony it coiled itself up into a 
ball, with the head and legs tucked under its body. 
Bunched up like this, the legs, nose, and jaws were 
safe from injury, even if it fell upon jagged rocks. 
The ratel is carnivorous, and nothing of an edible 
nature comes amiss to it. If hard pressed for 
food it devours roots, bulbs, and various other 
vegetable substances. Wild berries and fruits it 
is rather fond of. However, flesh food in some form 
is its mainstay, supplemented by the honey and larve 
of wild bees. In fact its chief mission in life is to 
act as a check on the too rapid increase of the native 
honey bee. Its thick skin is quite impervious to 
the sting of a bee, and the claws of its fore paws 
are specially adapted for tearing away the rotten 
wood of old trees, in the hollow interiors of which 
the honey bees establish homes, store up honey, 
and rear their broods. 
‘There are few situations in which hives of bees 
are safe from the ratel. It will even ascend the 
face of a cliff should there be sufficient foothold, 
and scoop out the comb from the rock crevices. 
When a bee’s nest is found, the ratel is by no means 
content to satisfy its hunger by eating the honey 
and the comb containing the bee larve, which are 
white grubs in the cells of the comb. What it 
cannot eat on the spot it carries off to its lair to 
furnish a meal. This habit is not confined to 
honeycomb. It applies to any other kind of pro- 
vender, as ] am aware from personal observation. 
144. 
