268 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
to find anything, so different was it from the eastern forests in 
which rodents choose the most precipitous places to live. 
With no hills, valleys, rivers or other geographical features to 
guide one, exploring alone in this coastal forest is not without 
risk and is a test for one’s sense of direction. Another problem 
in such a place is to locate traps again after setting them at widely 
separated points far from any path. 
The first thing that aroused my curiosity was a freshly made 
mound of earth about the size of a mole-hill. No hole was visible, 
but by probing one was discovered leading off from the edge of 
the mound. 
I had no idea what the occupant would be, but guessed that it 
was some kind of burrowing insectivore. 
Having set a small trap at the entrance of the hole, I returned 
the following morning at daybreak to see the result, and to my 
surprise found that I had caught a Madagascar Gerbil. No one 
had ever suspected that this rodent was an inhabitant of the 
deciduous forests. Even before taking any measurements, I could 
see that it was larger than any of my specimens from the plains, 
and it has since been classified as a new race. Unfortunately the 
skin was completely ruined by red ants. 
After continuous search I found a few more mounds similar to 
the one described, and in each case the entrance to the hole had 
been filled in. A few more Macrotarsomys were captured but all 
were ruined by red ants. 
Soon I found that it was a waste of time to catch anything in 
a break-back trap in this forest, for almost immediately after cap- 
ture these ants would appear in thousands out of the earth as if 
by magic, and in a very short time would eat away the skin and 
flesh. 
I tried to circumvent this first of all by visiting the traps at night 
in the hope of finding freshly caught specimens before any dam- 
age had been done, but I soon gave this up as I found that I was 
tiring myself unduly without getting any useful results. Instead, I 
relied on a couple of home-made cage-traps that I had brought 
with me. 
It became more and more difficult to locate fresh specimens, and 
