177.2, April. The game here, and in the country about Conftantia, confifts chiefly of fmall antilopes, as in Falfe-bay, viz. of fleenbocks, the antilope grimmta of P a l l a s , and of Kltp- fpringers, which, however, I have not had an opportunity of examining near; likewife of divmg goats, fo> callefl from a peculiar manner they have o f leaping and diving, as it wefe, under the buihes. The method of hunting thefe fmall antilopes is to drive them from their cover among the buihes, which is beft done by hounds; at which time the fportfman muft take care to be ready wi h his gun. They are likewife caught with fnares placed at the entrance into vineyards and kitchen-gardens. Thefe fnares are fattened to the top of an elaftic branch or bough of a tree, one end of which is made quite faft in the. earth, and the other being bent downwards, is attache^ very flightly to a board, which is laid on the ground, and covered a little with earth. It is farther fo contrived, that when the animal treads on the board, this gives a littfe fwing, upon which the elaftic bough flies loofe, and draws thefnare over one or two of the animal’s legs, at the fame time lifting thè ' creature up along with it into the air, lo that it remains hanging there. -Among other animals I faw here ichneumons {viverra ichneumon) and civet cats {viverra genetta) caught in traps near farm-houfes. They were fomething bigger than a common cat, and have a bad name with houfewifes for making great havock among the poultry and eggs ; though, on the other hand, they do a great deal o f fervice by deftroying the larger kind of rats. In the more general ceconomy of nature, thefe animals are ftill more ferviceable ; more fo indeed than the peop e a the Cape are capable of diftinguiihing, or know how to A7P7rii. turn to their advantage. The'river Nile and Egypt itfelf for inftance, would be full of crocodiles, i f their eggs were not in a great meafure deftroyed by the viverra ichneumon. In the Eaft-Indies this animal is famous for leflening the number of lizards and venomous ferpents, which too much abound there; and the fame fervice is undoubtedly done by the viverra fpecies in Africa. Thefe 'certainly contribute alfo to keep, the number of moles within certain limits. The ichneumon is likewife ufed to be made tame in the Eaft-Indies, fo as to follow its mafter as tra&ably as a-dog; and by its means it has been difcovered, that the ophiorhiza is an excellent antidote againft the bite of ferpents. Probably a difcovery of equal utility might be made at the Cape, i f the ichneumon was made tame there, and • thefe animals were-purpofely fuffered to be bitten by feve- ral forts o f ferpents, and at the fame time it was obferved what antidote they had recourfe to ; for nature, which has given, and indeed impofed on the ichneumon the fame office in Africa as in Afia, viz. to limit the increafe o f the race of ferpents, has in both places furniihed them with equally , good weapons, and an equally good prefervative. Experiments of this kind certainly deferve to be made with the viverra geneita, and fome others of that genus. The folliculus of this latter creature contains a kind , of muik, in air probability not without fome particular intention in its all-wife Creator, nor without fome ufe to the animal itfelf ; -. perhaps, indeed, for that of men, when they {hall be at the pains to make the difcovery.
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