198 



FAUNA. 



than a Persian (Angora) cat, are kept confined, 

 and are scraped once a week for their produce. 

 As in all Arab towns, the common cat abounds ; 

 it has a long tail and ears, a wild look, and a 

 savage temper. This Asiatic importation is 

 never thoroughly domesticated in Africa, and 

 seems always aspiring to become a e cat o' moun- 

 tain ' : on the West coast it is difficult to keep 

 cats in the house after kittening. The feline 

 preserves its fur in Zanzibar Island : at Mom- 

 basah there is or was a breed more grotesque 

 than the Manx, and completely bald like the 

 Chinese dog. The so-called ' Indian badger ' 

 ( Arctonyx collaris, Cuv.) digs into the graves and 

 devours the dead. The rodents are grey squir- 

 rels, small rabbits (?), large rats, some of peculiar 

 but not of unknown species, and mice, probably 

 imported by the shipping. The 6 wild boars ' are 

 pigs left by the Portuguese : strangers mistak- 

 ing the tusks often describe them as 4 horned ' 

 (chceropotamus). The Saltiana antelope is com- 

 mon : it smells strongly of musk, and its flesh 

 resembles the rat's. 



A fine large fish-hawk, with gold-fringed eye 

 and yellow legs, bluish-black plume, and grey 

 neck-feathers, haunts the Island and the coast : 

 the other raptores are the brown kites (F. 



