-^ Fauna : Mammals 



They live chiefly on fruit, nuts, leat-buds, and the soft, juicy 

 inner bark immediately next to the woody fibre of branches. 



The true Squirrels (Sciurus) are represented by at least six 

 species, the largest of which is Stanger's squirrel. This is a 

 creature nearly the size of a rabbit, with coarse rough hair. 

 According to Biittikofer, it lives much on the tops of the oil 

 palms, feeding on the orange-coloured nuts, which have their 

 outer rind full of rich oil. He considers that the vivid orange 

 colour on the breast and belly of this large squirrel partly arises 

 from the staining of their skins by the brightly coloured fat 

 that exudes from the rind of the nuts ; but in this he is 

 mistaken, as allied species found in British Central Africa, where 

 they do not specially Hve on the oil palms, exhibit the same 

 bright coloration. The flesh of these squirrels is much appre- 

 ciated by natives and Americo-Liberians, partly because of their 

 rich fattening diet. 



The common Ground squirrel, Xerus erythropus, is one of 

 the few creatures that are really common and frequently seen 

 in Liberia. Although always on the alert, it has little fear of 

 man, and like most of the true squirrels is active in the day- 

 time. The hair of these ground squirrels in almost all the 

 four species is coarse or even spiny. The general colour is 

 reddish yellow. There are only two mammae. The most striking 

 feature, however, is the almost complete absence of ear conches. 

 The ears look as though they had been cropped. 



Xerus is one of what may be called the " Miocene " genera 

 of Liberia, as a fossil example of that period has been discovered 

 in France (according to Lydekker). But the genus Xerus, 

 though nowadays restricted to Afric.i, is found pretty well all 

 over that continent from Algeria to the Cape. 



The dormice are represented by several species of 

 Graphiurus (sometimes erected into the separate genera of 



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