202 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
arms of pottos have been found still adhering to the necks of 
monkeys brought down by their arrows. Nevertheless the potto’s 
grip is nothing to worry about, though he can give one quite a 
nasty bite. He is characterized by a very short tail and rudimentary 
index fingers on the forehands. As in the lemurs one toe on each 
foot is furnished with a long tapering nail, instead of the normal 
short rounded one, which is used for toilet purposes. 
One day at Mampong some natives brought me several small 
weird-looking animals with blackened faces. On close inspection 
I saw that they were Bushy-tailed Dormice—normally beautiful 
fluffy creatures—but these had been captured by putting dried 
grass and leaves in a hole in a tree where they were sleeping, and 
setting fire to it. The fumes and heat had driven them out and 
the natives had no difficulty in catching the poor half-dazed and 
badly burned creatures. These people are terribly cruel and think 
nothing of inflicting the most diabolical torture on animals. For- 
tunately, beyond singed whiskers and blistered toes, these speci- 
mens were not as badly burned as at first it seemed and most of 
them eventually made a complete recovery. To discourage the 
boys we sent them off without payment and threatened to thrash 
anyone attempting to trap anything more by these methods. 
This dormouse, the larger of the two West African species, has 
much the same habits as the galagos, feeding on fruit and insects, 
and sleeping in holes in trees—sometimes quite a number together. 
About fifty miles north of Kumasi the forest gives way to 
savanna country which becomes drier and drier as one proceeds 
northward, until the semi-arid belt with its stunted thorn-bush 
growth is reached. It might be imagined that any tropical forest 
would be a paradise for birds, but it is in the drier regions that 
they are most plentiful. To be sure of seeing an abundance of 
bird-life, both in variety and numbers, it is only necessary to visit 
a stream or river, with its usual fringing luxurious vegetation, 
running through some dry region. 
In seeking such a spot I went northward from Mampong 
through the savanna country, and found that, as it was the end of 
the dry season, the usual annual fires had swept the country, 
leaving it quite barren. The charred leafless trees and the ground 
