j775- garden-fluff in the inclofures here. In the day-time it keeps in its holes under-ground, and at night it feeks for its food, which confifts o f roots and leaves. The calla JEthiopica is the plant fuppofed to be moft coveted by this . animal, on which account likewife it is called the yzter- varkens wortel. This vegetable is notwithftanding of fo acrid a nature, that either the root or the ieaf applied to the furface o f the body occaiions blifters. The hyftrix is caught in the following manner. They fteal by night foftly towards the place where the creature ufes to fecrete itfelf, taking with them a dark lantern. The dogs now begin to give the alarm, and help to drive the animal from its. fubterraneous retreat, till at length the fportfmen are able to get at it and knock it on the head. It often happens indeed, that the more eager and inexperienced dogs get fore nofes and mouths, 8cc. -in confequence of being pricked by this creature’s lharp quills; but there is no foundation for the report, that it has the power o f ihooting forth thefe weapons from its body at pleafure, and dire&ing them againft its enemies. It is perfe&ly well defended from dogs as well as other animals, while, like the hedgehog, it rolls its body into a heap, and fets up its prickles or quills, -many o f which are a foot and a half long. I did not hear talk . at the Cape of any bezoar. being produced by this animal. The flelh neareft refembles pork, a circumftance which has undoubtedly procured it the name it bears. It is chiefly ufed as bacon, being fmoked and dried up the chimney for that purpofe, and is by no means ill-tafted; though prejudice hinders a great many of the inhabitants from eating it. I found I found here two new ipecies of the genus of tetrao, one of which is called partridge and the other pheafanf, either fort being nearly of the iize of our partridges. They live in flocks, and are not hard to come at, efpecially in the mornings and evenings; at which times chiefly they difcover their abode by a ihrill kurring noife by no means pleafant in itfelf, yet not difagreeable to hear; partly as it takes off a little from the wildnefs and defolatenefs, with which the fight of fo many extenfive and untilled fields cannot fail to firike the imagination; and partly, as particularly at break of day as well as at the ruddy opening o f the morn, it prognofticates the approach of the fun to vivify all nature. Flocks of keuvitts, on the other hand, towards the duik of the evening, fcreamed out a difagreeable found refembling that of the name they bear. Thefe are a fort o f fnipes, and are diftinguiihed in the Syftema Naturae by the name o f the fcolopax capenfis. Knorrhane is the name of a kind of otis, which has the art of concealing itfelf perfedUy till one comes pretty near to it, when on a fudden it ibars aloft, and almoft perpendicularly into the air, with a fliarp, hafty, and quavering fcream, or the repetition of korrh, korrb, which is an alarm to the animals throughout the whole neighbourhood, difcovering the approach of a fportiinan, or enemy o f fome fort or ether.' The fecretaries bird, though it has been already brought alive to Europe, and a drawing o f it, painted in its natural colours has been given by M. V osmaer under the denomination -of Jagittarius, is too remarkable among the feathered kind to be left unnoticed here. It was in thefe Vo L. I. X parts
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