198 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
interested in smaller hawks, but apart from this I dislike catching 
them as they invariably badly damage the nets with their power- 
ful legs and claws, which necessitates hours of tedious labor repair- 
ing them. It is also a tricky business trying to disentangle a 
sparrow-hawk from a net, as, to avoid a painful experience, it 1s 
essential to catch the bird by the legs (avoiding the claws), and to 
retain one’s hold until he is free. 
In the Gold Coast the native children are very clever at locating 
the breeding-places of squirrels by watching their movements. A 
lot of material, such as leaves, is carried into a hole high up in a 
tree just before the young are due to be born, so when this activity 
is noted it follows that there will shortly be an increase to the 
squirrel family. When this nest-making ceases the natives wait for 
some days and then occasionally climb up to the hole. If they can 
hear any young ones making a noise, as they nearly always do 
when their mother is absent, they enlarge the hole with an ax 
and get the babies out. Several were brought to us so young that 
they still had their eyes closed. Some were Gambian Tree Squirrels 
and others White-striped Squirrels. My niece hand-reared them 
with tinned milk administered by means of a small bottle with a 
lip to it, normally used for feeding sunbirds and humming-birds. 
I never realized the intelligence of squirrels until I witnessed the 
amazing antics of these hand-reared specimens. 
From the start they were given their full liberty and at an early 
age used to follow us about wherever we went. They seemed to 
get great joy out of hiding under things. One specialized in 
crawling under our bedclothes and another used to crawl up and 
down inside my trouser legs as soon as | sat down, peeping out 
every now and then to ascertain the whereabouts of his mates. 
When they were full grown they used to make excursions into the 
neighboring trees, but had an uncanny knack of appearing when 
our meals were served, and would then run all over us cadging 
tit-bits. 
At the first sign of dawn they would visit us in turn, running 
over the mosquito nets of our beds, trying to get in. When they 
were allowed to enter they always greeted us by crawling over our 
faces, then, after playing hide-and-seek for a while under the bed- 
