APPENDIX III.— MAMMALS 485 



several in a night, tearing oft" a large piece half-way up and then moving 

 on. They seem to prefer a species of ant that lives in the ground but 

 throws up no hill, for we found numerous trenches where this one had 

 found and followed up an ant-tunnel. 



"They will also dig into old, deserted ant-hills, re-excavate and lengthen 

 an old burrow, or drive a hole into a bank, and in each case after a 

 good deal of labour work out again and move on. 



" For their home-burrow they generally drive a sloping tunnel till they 

 reach a depth of four or five feet, and then dig along through the soft 

 earth or sand below the stratum to which the rains penetrate. In this they 

 can burrow far quicker than any number of well-eciuipped men can follow 

 them, having to dig through the hard-baked layer of soil under which the 

 animals drive. A large number of men might cut a circle round, but it 

 would be a difficult and tedious task. I tried digging one out, but as 

 soon as we sank a cross trench ahead of the beast, it turned off to one side. 

 " Eventually, one evening I lay out near a hole one had entered the 

 night before. I missed it the first time it showed. Two others came 

 close to us during the night. They move very close to the ground, until 

 alarmed, when they raise themselves like a lizard. One appeared to spring 

 backwards four or five yards, and then stopped, head raised towards us. 

 The beast in the burrow showed again, and I wounded it. Ne.xt morning 

 I found it had gone down a burrow, in which it was able to move the old 

 soft earth, but could not dig into the hard earth at the end. It cried 

 piteously when wounded by a second bullet. 



" The shape of the burrow w-as an irregular oval, the longer diameter 

 being 10 feet 7 inches and the shorter 7 feet 3 inches ; the end where we 

 found the animal was 5 feet 5 inches below the surface, and almost under 

 the entrance. 



"None of the Abyssinians with me had seen a 'saherar'" before, and 

 it excited much interest on the road to Asmara." 



Total shot, I. 



No. and Sex. Locality. Dale. Height. Girth. Length. Weight. 



171 c5 N. bank of Mareb 22.7.00 21 29 11.42.67 116 lbs. 



At \ in. from end of snout girth was 7i 



,, 3 in- .> ,> >. 7§ 



„6iin. „ „ „ vi\ 



Girth by eyes, 9I in. ; girth just in front of ears, 16 in. ; girth liase of tail, 19 in. 

 Colour — eye, brown ; inside mouth, dirty white ; tongue, pale pink. 



Wild Ass, Eqiiiis africaniis, " Badahiya." — " Said to be fairly common 

 in Erythrea." 



Buffalo, Bos coffer a-quinoctiaHs, " Gush." — " I spent several weeks after 



