APPENDIX C 



THE following notes were made by Loring in East Africa: 



Alpine Hyrax (Procama mackinderi). On Mount Kenia at altitudes between 

 12,000 and 15,000 feet we found these animals common wherever protective 

 rocks occurred. Under the shelving rocks were great heaps of their droppings, 

 and in the places where for centuries they had sunned themselves the stone 

 was stained and worn smooth. At all times of the day, but more frequently 

 after the sun had risen, they could be seen singly, in pairs, and in families, 

 perched on the peaks. At our highest camp (14,700 feet), where on the aad 

 of September more than half an inch of ice formed in buckets of water outside 

 the tent, they were often heard. They emit a variety of chatters, whistles, and 

 cat-like squalls that cannot be described in print, and we found them very noisy. 

 Whenever they saw any one approaching they always sounded some note of 

 alarm, and frequently continued to harangue the intruder until he had ap- 

 proached so close that they took fright and disappeared in the rocks or until 

 he had passed. All along the base of cliffs and leading from one mass of rocks 

 to another they made well-worn trails through the grass. At this time of the 

 year many young ones about one-third grown were seen and taken. 



Kenia Tree Hyrax (Procavia crawshayi). From the time that we reached the edge 

 of the forest belt (altitude 7,000), on Mount Kenia, we heard these tree dassies 

 every night and at all camps to an altitude of 10,700 feet they were common. 

 I once heard one on a bright afternoon about four o'clock, and on a second 

 occasion another about two hours before sundown. Although I searched 

 diligently on the ground for runways, and for suitable places to set traps, no 

 such place was found. In a large yew-tree that had split and divided 

 fifteen feet from the ground, I found a bed or bulky platform of dried leaves 

 and moss of nature's manufacture. On the top of this some animal had placed 

 a few dried green leaves. In this bed I set a steel trap and carefully covered 

 it, and on the second night (October 14), captured a dassie containing a foetus 

 almost mature. We were informed by our "boys" that these animals inhabited 

 hollow stumps and logs as well as the foliage of the live trees, but we found 

 no signs that proved it, although, judging from the din at night, dassies were 

 abundant everywhere in the forests. 



At evening, about an hour after darkness had fully settled, a dassie would 

 call and in a few seconds dassies were answering from all around, and the din 

 continued for half an hour or an hour. The note began with a scries of deep 

 frog-like croaks that gradually gave way to a series of shrill tremulous screams, 

 at times resembling the squealing of a pig and again the cries of a child. It 

 was a far-reaching sound and always came from the large forest trees. Often 

 the cries were directly over our heads and at a time when the porters were sing- 

 ing and dancing about a bright camp-fire. Although we tried many times 

 to shine their eyes with a powerful light, we never succeeded, nor were we able 

 to hear any rustling of the branches or scraping on the tree trunks as one might 

 expect an animal of such size to make. The jwrters were offered a rupee apiece 

 for dassies, but none was brought in. 



Rock Hyrax (Procavia briicei maculala). These animals inhabited the rocks and 

 cliffs on Ulukenia Hills in fair numbers. None lived in burrows of their own 



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