274 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
The conditions seemed well suited to Macrotarsomys, but to carry 
out the extensive search that would be necessary to locate it was 
indeed a problem. In such vegetation one has only to proceed a 
few yards from a path to be lost in a maze of creepers and thorn- 
bearing bushes, with no protection whatsoever from the burning 
sun. 
During the first week’s scramble, when I lost most of my clothes 
and not a little skin and blood, I found nothing but one or two 
old mounds of earth that had the appearance of having been made 
by Macrotarsomys, which made me determined to carry on the 
search whatever the difficulties. I was rewarded by finding a used 
hole which I knew at once to be that of a Macrotarsomys. I 
trapped the occupant without difficulty, and continuous search in 
the same vicinity revealed the presence of more. 
Eventually I found that in these scrub-forests Macrotarsomys 
is very local, and that for some unapparent reason there are vast 
areas where it does not exist at all. In the course of three weeks 
I caught twenty specimens, all within a space of less than a 
square mile. 
I would have liked to continue my researches at a spot about 
ten miles to the east where a patch of forest contained sifakas, 
Macrotarsomys, and mongooses, but it was too far from any 
habitations and water, and the natives would not accompany me 
as they were too concerned about sleeping quarters. I expect the 
real reason was their fear of brigands, who, according to them, 
abound in this wild region. 
Here, as elsewhere, the natives’ huts, although of simple con- 
struction, conformed to a pattern, and it is interesting that each 
native tribe or sub-tribe in Madagascar and Africa builds a par- 
ticular kind of hut which is as uniform within the tribe as nest 
construction 1s in different species of birds, mammals, and insects. 
At the settlement of Andranohilany, meaning “Where there was 
formerly water,” I saw several native huts being constructed. The 
sole materials used were poles, sticks, grass, and inner bark as 
string. The floor space of the huts was about nine feet by six, and 
only in the center were they high enough for the occupants to 
stand upright. 
