On the contrary, the creature is most difficult to capture; though not to kill, for a blow on the snout will do that.
But just as he is easily killed when you catch him, in the same proportion is he hard to catch.

He is shy and wary, scarce ever comes out of his burrow but at night; and even then skulks so silently along, and watches around him so sharply, that no enemy can approach without his knowing it.

His eyes are very small, and, like most nocturnal animals, he sees but indifferently; but in the two senses of smell and hearing he is one of the sharpest.

His long erect ears enable him to catch every sound that may be made in his neighbourhood, however slight.
The "aard-vark" is not the only ant-eating quadruped of South Africa.
There is another four-footed creature as fond of white ants as he; but this is an animal of very different appearance.

It is a creature without hair; but, instead its body is covered all over with a regular coat of scales, each as large as a half-crown piece.