( ] x x x i x ) 



time I Lad met them) and Caracal cats (or rather Lynxe I 

 suppose) and interesting birds and lizards and things. I 

 cannot now remember what I said, but it was probably 

 written early in September or end of August, I think. 



" Oct. 6, I'M 7. 

 "No, I fear I can't re-write the missing letters about 

 St. Michael's: the enthusiasm of the time is gone! 



" Aug. 9, 1917. 

 ""What's coming may interest, you. It gol lost iii a 

 previous letter thai didn't reach von. Firstly, about a 

 Jumping Shrew (Macroscelid?), which I found, dead, on 

 safari, about this time last year. I asked my boy the native 

 name lor it, lor apparently they know it, quite well and 

 differentiate it from Rodents. In Kiswahili it is called 

 Kasanji (or Kasangi) : my own boy said it was, crepuscular 



rather than nocturnal. A Muganda called it Musonso, and 

 said it lives in very long burrows underground and ate while 

 ants, hut also said it ate the sam* 1 as rats ami miff (so there 

 is probably confusion here). Both boys said this that the e 



(apparently feeble) animals entice mice to come to them by 

 squealing, and then kill them, but do not eat them. My 

 Swahili boy also said thai two or three will collaborate in 

 attacking a snake, or lie in ambush for it . and kill it probably 



mere folk lore ! ' 



" Nov. :!0, 1917. 

 "It was on July 5, 1916, at Xaimreinlie Bay that I saw 

 the lirst 'Jumping Shrew.' I saw three large one here 

 |at Lulanguru, 17 miles \V. of Tabora] one evening, quite 



close. They did not actually jump, hut their quick gail 

 wa much like that of a raliliit when it moves from one spot, 

 to another with powerful thru-t, of the hind-legS. I was 



near enough to see how the absurd tubular noses were con- 

 stantly wrinkled up. They sat on the ground with the tail 

 straighl out behind them." 



Dr. Oldfield Thomas. K.K.S.. to whom the description has 

 been 3ubmitted, considers that the • Jumping Shrew" is no 



