488 APPENDIX B 



mammals, I should use them, rather than the American, for pur- 

 poses of illustration. 



Hdiosciurus henice (Kenia Forest Squirrel). Mount Kenia, B. E. A. Heller 

 shot one in a tree in the heavy forest by our first elephant camp. In 

 size and actions like our grey squirrel. Shy. 

 Paraxerus jacksoni. Shot at same camp ; common at Nairobi and Kijabe, 

 B. E. A. A little smaller tlian our red squirrel ; much less noisy and 

 less vivacious in action. Tamer than the larger squirrel, but mucli 

 shyer than our red squirrel or chickaree. Kept among the bushes and 

 lower limbs of the trees. Local in distribution ; found in pairs or small 

 families. 

 Grnphmriis parvus (Pigmy Dormouse). Everywhere in B. E. A. in the forest ; 

 arboreal, often descending to the ground at night, for they are strictly 

 noctui-nal. Found in the woods frinijing the rivers in the Sotik and on 

 the Athi Plains, but most common in tlie jiniiper forests of the higher 

 levels. Spend the daytime in crevices and hollows in the big trees. 

 Build round, ball-like nests of bark fibre and woolly or cottony vegetable 

 ' fibre. One of them place 1 in a hollow, four inches across, in a stump, 

 the entrance being five feet above the ground. C'auglit in traps baited 

 with -walnuts or peanuts. 

 Tutern pofhce Heller (n. s.) (Athi Gerbille). Common on the Athi Plains, in 

 open ground at the foot of the hills. Live in short grass, not bush. 

 Nocturnal. Live in burrows, each burrow often possessing several 

 entrances, and sometimes several burrows, all inhabited by same animal, 

 not communicating. 

 Tatera varia Heller (n. s.) (Sotik Gerbille). A large form, seemingly new. 

 Lives in the open plains, among the grass ; not among bushes, nor at 

 foot of hills. Lives in burrows, one animal apparently having several, 

 each burrow with a little mound at the entrance Nocturnal. In aspect 

 and habits bears much resemblance to our totally different kangaroo 

 rats. 

 Dipodillvs hnrwoocli (Naivasha Pigmy Gerbille). Gommon around Naivasha, 

 also in Sotik. A small form, quarter the size of the above ; about as 

 big as a hou^e mouse. Same habits as above, but apparently only one 

 burrow to each animal ; much moi-e plentiful. The burrows in the Sotik 

 were in hard ground, and went straight down. Round Naivasha the 

 ground was soft and dry, and most of the buiTOws entered it diagonally. 

 Otoniys irroratus tropicalis (' eldt Rat). Generally throughout B. E. A., but 

 always in moist places, never on dry plains. Abundant on top of Aber- 

 dares, and ten thousand feet up on slopes of Kenia. Always in open 

 grass. Make very definite trails, which they cut with their teeth through 

 the grass. Feed on the grass, which they cut into lengths just as our 

 meadow mice (Mirotux) do. Largely diurnal, but also run about at night. 

 The gravid females examined had in each of them two embryos only. 

 Live in burrows, in which they place nests of fine grass six inches in 

 diameter. 

 Dendromjis mgrofi-onn (Black-fronted Tree Mouse). On Athi Plains and on 

 the Sotik. Size of our harvest mouse. Do not go into forest, but dwell 

 in bush country and thin timber along streams. Nocturnal ; not 

 abundant. Live in covered nests in bushes ; nests made of long wiry 

 grass, not lined, and very small, less than three inches in diameter. 

 They are globular, and entered by a hole in one side, as with our marsh 

 wrons. Only one mouse to a nest, as far as we saw ; Heller caught two 

 in tlieir ne.sts. The nests were in thorn bushes, only about a foot and a 

 half from the ground ; once or twice these mice were found in what were 



