540 APPENDIX B 



chickaree. Kept among the bushes and lower limbs of the trees. Local in 

 distribution; found in pairs or small families. 



Graphiurus parvus (Pygmy Dormouse). Everywhere in B. E. A. in the forest; 

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

 Found in the woods fringing the rivers in the Sotik and on the Athi Plains, but 

 most common in the juniper 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 placed in a hollow, four 

 inches across, in a stump, the entrance being five feet-above the ground. Caught 

 in traps baited with walnuts or peanuts. 



Tatera pothtz 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. 



Dipodillus harwoodi (Naivasha Pygmy Gerbille). Common around Naivasha, also 

 in Sotik. A small form, quarter the size of the above; about as big as a house 

 mouse. Same habits as above, but apparently only one burrow to each animal; 

 much more 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 

 burrows entered it diagonally. 



Olomys irroratus tropicalis (Veldt Rat). Generally throughout B. E. A. but always 

 in moist places, never on dry plains. Abundant on top of Aberdares, and ten 

 thousand feet up on slopes of Kenia. Always in open grass. Make very defi- 

 nite trails which they cut with their teeth through the grass. Feed on the grass 

 which they cut into lengths just as our meadow mice mirotus 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. 



Dendromys nigrojrons (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 wrens. Only one mouse to a nest, as far as we saw; 

 Heller caught two in their nests. 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 apparently abandoned weaver-birds' nests. If frightened, one would drop 

 out of its nest to the ground and run off; but if Heller waited quietly for ten 

 minutes the mouse would come back, climb up the twigs of the bush, and re-enter 

 the nest. It never stayed away long, seeming to need the nest for protection. 



Dendromys insignis. Although belonging to the genus of tree mice this large den- 

 dromys lives on the ground, seemingly builds no nest, and is most often found 

 in the runways of the Otomys. 



Lophuromys aquilus (Harsh-furred Mouse). Common in Rift Valley, on the top 

 of the Aberdares, and in the Kenia forest. Go up to timber line, but are not 

 found in the deep forest, save above the edges of the stream. Very fond of brush. 

 Do not go out on the grassy plains. Usually, but not strictly, nocturnal; and in 

 the cold, foggy uplands, as on the Aberdares, become diurnal. 



