NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
Away from the habitations of man the ratel is a 
useful animal in maintaining the balance of Nature. 
Armies of rats, mice, noxious insects, and venomous 
snakes fall a prey to it. However, in the vicinity 
of man the Honey Ratel is not to be trusted, for 
it often develops an undue fondness for poultry, 
ostrich chicks, kids, and lambs, as well as domestic 
hives of bees. It is only, as a rule, when driven to 
desperation by hunger that a ratel ventures near 
its most dreaded enemy—man. I was living for 
some time at the farm of a friend, and although 
a pair of ratels had been living in a neighbouring 
kloof for several years, they had never been guilty 
of interference with any of his stock. The country 
was a bushy one, and the ratels found an abundance 
of food without having to resort to the dangerous 
expedient of venturing out within the sphere of 
influence of the farmer’s dogs and gun. We knew 
the lair of these ratels, which was in a hole under 
an overhanging boulder, amongst the tangled bush 
and creepers at the foot of a krantz, but my friend 
would not allow them to be molested, for the reason 
that they were useful agents in destroying rats, 
mice, snakes, locusts, and other pests. Time 
enough, said he, to kill them when they began to 
do him injury. 
There is a little bird known as the Honey Guide 
in South Africa, which has obtained its name from 
its habit of guiding people to the hives of wild bees. 
Screaming, chattering, and fluttering its wings, it 
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