GOLD COAST 199 
clothes, they would go out to the trees and forage for food, and 
bask in the early-morning sunshine. 
The one drawback to the Gambian Tree Squirrels was that they 
could never be trusted with birds, and I had two killed before 
I realized that these squirrels, when the opportunity occurred, 
were carnivorous. In fact they reminded me rather of mongooses 
in habits and appearance, the tail being rather thin and straight 
and never arched in the typical squirrel fashion. In diet they are 
practically omnivorous and are especially fond of eating brains out 
of a dead bird. After I reached England one climbed up to a spar- 
row’s nest, and though it was attacked viciously by the cock spar- 
row it took out the eggs one by one and ate them. 
When one thinks of a the abundance of these squirrels in the 
Gold Coast it makes one wonder how the smaller birds survive. 
Only those species with protective nesting habits, such as tinker- 
birds and barbets, etc., which nest in small holes in trees, or species 
large enough to protect their eggs and young, can be immune 
from the depredations of these creatures. 
One day we invited the sisters from the local convent to tea and 
we were seated comfortably on the lawn in front of the rest-house. 
Having quenched our thirst we produced the highlight of the 
entertainment—the squirrels. They performed their usual amusing 
antics, running all over us and cadging food—much to the 
delight of the sisters. At a moment when I was slightly off my 
guard the side-striped specimen, named Nutty, who loved disap- 
pearing up my trouser leg, was on his way to explore new fields. 
He was approaching one of the sisters at good speed, and had 
just arrived at her feet, when I took a headlong dive in time to 
catch him as he was about to ascend into the unknown! 
The Gold Coast forest contains many other arboreal mammals, 
but as some of these are nocturnal they are seldom seen. One such 
is the beautiful Demidoff’s Galago—a large-eyed lemuroid with a 
body only four inches long and a tail nearly twice this length. 
It is the smallest of the family and the most delicate in captivity. 
In tropical forests, where the trees are a great height and often 
festooned with great clusters of epiphytes in the upper branches, 
the chances of seeing some small mammal curled up asleep are 
