MADAGASCAR (III) 255 
South Africa. Here and there are outcrops of flat rock projecting 
only slightly above the surrounding surface, and the fissures in 
these provide a home for many kinds of peculiar rock plants and 
small bushes. 
While searching among the latter I found some small berries 
which had been gnawed. This gave me the first clue to the 
existence of a small rodent in this region, and I lost no time in 
setting traps. At dawn the following day I set off on the six-mile 
jaunt to see what luck was in store. By this time I had walked 
several hundred miles in search of Macrotarsomys and was begin- 
ning to regard it in the light of something legendary, so it came 
almost as a shock when I caught a small rodent corresponding 
in every way with the detailed description I had long since mem- 
orized. 
Encouraged by this, I explored similar situations over a wide 
area, but no further traces were found. However, a number of 
traps were set on the off-chance of catching something, and I tried 
again for several nights where the first specimen was caught, in 
the hope that a mate would be forthcoming, but without success. 
After that we proceeded farther north, where the search was con- 
tinued in the same range of hills, at first with no success; but then 
on an isolated kopje about thirty miles north of Ihosy I came 
across further indications of rodents among the rock vegetation. 
This led to the discovery of a small hole under a rock which was 
found to contain a single Macrotarsomys. On the same hill two 
more holes were discovered which also contained solitary speci- 
mens. 
With the capture of a total of four specimens, my success came 
to an end. 
The extreme rarity of these rodents, and the fact that those 
which I trapped were all leading a solitary existence, was rather 
mystifying, especially as I had expected to find them living in 
the plains. 
After more than three weeks of continuous mountaineering I 
returned to Ihosy and thence to Tananarive. 
The British Museum was keen on getting any material in the 
way of small nocturnal mammals, particularly the rodents and in- 
sectivores which were poorly represented in their collections, so I 
