14 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



on fruit, honey, and boiled rice : it will also eat 

 bread and milk, and even cooked meat, while its 

 normal insect diet may be conveniently replaced 

 by a supply of the mealworms so largely used by 

 bird-fanciers. One can hardly realise that so 

 innocent-looking an animal as the bush baby is, in 

 its own feeble fashion, a beast of prey ; but in 

 captivity these wee creatures will not refuse a dead 

 sparrow, and when wild probably catch and kill 

 small birds for themselves. 



The bush baby has bred in captivity, not only 

 in Africa, but also on two occasions in England. 

 The normal number of young at a birth is two, 

 though sometimes there is only one : the infant 

 galagoes are long-coated, and grow but slowly, 

 taking two years, or even longer, to attain maturity. 

 The Jardin des Plantes Museum at Paris contains, 

 amongst other treasures, a young galago — a queer, 

 rat-like little creature, scantily clothed with long- 

 hair, very unlike the close-set chinchilla-like fur 

 of the adult. 



