NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
ments. ‘This cage she also demolished, and had 
eaten its inhabitants. Half a dozen other cages 
had also been smashed and the creatures therein 
had gone the way of the others. Four baby 
Chacma Baboons were sitting in the remotest 
corner of their roomy cage hugging each other and 
chattering with fear. No wonder, for they had a 
lucky escape from a terrible fate. The ratel had, 
during the night, tried every part of the cage. 
There were traces of her operations on it on all 
sides. She had even climbed up to the top, a 
height of ten feet, and had upset some art bowls 
containing choice growing palms. ‘These were in 
fragments on the floor. Her mind had evidently 
been diverted by the sight of nine albino rats in 
an adjacent cage. This cage was four feet square, 
with strong glass sides and a series of augur holes 
round the wooden frame near the bottom; and the 
top was covered with strong wire. 
Failing to break the glass or to otherwise demolish 
the cage, the ratel patiently scraped at one of the 
augur holes until she had enlarged it sufficiently 
for a rat to get through The wood was thick and 
hard, and it must have cost her hours of patient 
labour. Then, making formidable demonstrations 
on the opposite side of the cage, she frightened the 
rats so thoroughly that they endeavoured to escape 
through the hole she had made. This was exactly 
what she was intending that they shoulddo. When 
one of the rats emerged she evidently pounced upon 
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