Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/239

Rh burrows in common, but even between different colonies intermigration takes place—in fact, all the animals within a fairly large area seem to form one large family, the members of which are very independent of each other. The "Jalva," of course, must be termed a gregarious animal, but the gregarious disposition of each individual is not in any remarkable degree pronounced. The fact that the animals are living together in colonies may, I think, be better explained by considering that long experience in the course of time has undoubtedly taught them that it is far easier for ten or perhaps one hundred animals to dig a complicated burrow than for one to do so.

The day is spent sleeping in the channels of the burrow, and just at sunset or immediately after the "Jalvas" commence to appear outside. Nimbly skipping amongst the sand-heaps and the scanty herbage, the agile animals very soon saunter off in search of food. All night they are roaming about feeding, and, according to my experience, they never drink, at least during the dry season. Their tracks were never seen near any well nor on the shore of the ocean, and, although a watering trough for cattle was situated within two hundred yards of one of the places where I used to procure my specimens, I invariably failed in discovering tracks of the animals at the little pool of water which procured its supply from the leaking trough.

However crooked and complicated the burrows of the "Jalva" are, still some of their most dangerous enemies are not prevented from intrusion. The large pythons, for instance, Python molurus and Aspidites melanocephalus, frequently visit the colonies in search of prey. I have never caught the pythons in the act of devouring the animals, but the unmistakable large tracks of these snakes—the largest in this locality—were often seen leading in and out through the different holes of the "Jalva" colonies; and the natives unanimously affirmed that the snakes came there to eat the "Jalvas." In the north I have frequently found hair and bones of Petrogale brachyotis in the excrements of large snakes.

During the long dry season the aborigine is not a very dangerous enemy to the "Jalva," but when the rains set in, and, especially in a heavy wet season, perfectly soak the ground, the burrows collapse. The boggy condition of the earth does not