2770 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
rabbit. But for the war, I would have kept them alive and taken 
them home to England with the idea of trying to breed them. 
In a tropical forest, where there is little shade for six months of 
the year, it is not surprising to find that nearly all the mammals 
are nocturnal. The forest between Morondava and Belo is par- 
ticularly rich in nocturnal lemurs, three of which—the Weasel 
Lemur, the Fork-crowned Lemur and the Fat-tailed Lemur— 
are quite common. There is also a fourth—the Pygmy or Mouse 
Lemur. 
By day most of these creatures sleep in holes in baobab trees, 
which provide ideal shelter in a forest where it is otherwise 
scarce. The baobabs in this district, known as Grandidier’s Baobab, 
are enormous, and as the wood is soft and spongy, excavations are 
easily made by birds and mammals alike. They offer protection 
for owls, parrots, nocturnal lemurs and even bats. 
The Fat-tailed Lemur, known to the Sakalava as kely behoy, 
is a curious beast. Although only about seven inches long in the 
head and body, its tail is sometimes an inch and a half in diameter 
at the base, and is a reservoir of fat. The amount of fat varies 
greatly in individual specimens, and is considered to be a reserve 
to help the animal tide over the long dry season when food is 
scarce. This seems a likely explanation, although in October, to- 
wards the end of the dry period, their tails are still enormously 
fat. I was unable to obtain any evidence that the Fat-tailed Lemur 
hibernates, as has often been stated. The specimens brought to me 
were lively enough and were always eager for food. Moreover, I 
saw them at large at night, with the aid of a hunting-lamp, in the 
height of the winter season. 
It is difficult to learn much of the habits of nocturnal lemurs. I 
kept the above-mentioned four species in captivity for a while, 
but was unable to note anything of particular interest except that 
the Weasel Lemur is less nocturnal than the others and is probably 
partly crepuscular in its wild state. 
As a result of my activities in the hot coastal belts of the east 
and west, under somewhat primitive conditions, I contracted 
malaria on my journey back to the plateau. Being bumped about 
