THE GALAGO 



rude poke with his finger, the top of which the 

 galago seized and nipped, and with a yell the man 

 jerked his hand away. This behaviour scared the 

 animal, and with one spring it was out of the 

 open door, then on to the top of the cage. From 

 this point of vantage it sprang a distance of twelve 

 feet up to the skeleton of a whale. Then we saw 

 several brownish streaks here and there, and the 

 galago had vanished. We searched the entire 

 museum without success. In a corner we had on 

 exhibition an aviary of beautiful Spanish albino doves. 

 The following morning we found two of these dead, 

 one of which had been partially eaten, and the other 

 was minus its brain. Again we searched in vain, 

 and on the next morning two doves were found to 

 be wounded and the partially eaten body of another 

 lay on the floor. This occurred for four or five 

 nights. Then a tempting bait was laid down and 

 surrounded with a mass of string, on which bird- 

 lime had been smeared. We found the string 

 the following morning covered with fur, but 

 no galago. We caught the murderer at last in the 

 very act of killing a dove. Creeping into the museum 

 after dark, we silently waited. After a time, hearing 

 the doves fluttering, my two friends ran from their 

 place of concealment towards the cage, and at the 

 same instant I switched on the electric lights. The 

 wire mesh of the cage was just large enough for the 

 galago to squeeze through, but we succeeded in 

 frightening it back before it could push through and 



11 



