THE GALAGO 



hardly distinguishable from a bird's nest. Cavities 

 in the large branches or trunks of old forest trees are 

 favourite lurking-places of this galago, and so, too, 

 are the abandoned nests of the larger bush-frequent- 

 ing birds. 



Once I shot one of these pretty little galagos, and 

 before it died it gazed at me with a world of reproach 

 in its big, brown, gentle-looking eyes, and that look, 

 which had in it a world of sadness, has haunted me 

 ever since. 



These galagos can travel from branch to branch 

 and tree to tree with great rapidity, springing several 

 feet at a bound, and their movements are exceedingly 

 graceful and very deliberate. They rarely descend 

 to the ground. If surprised in an isolated tree, the 

 galago, if hard pressed, will drop to the ground and 

 make off at a fairly fast gallop to the nearest cover, 

 into which it will vanish. It is futile to attempt to 

 chase a galago in its native habitat, so swiftly does it 

 travel amongst the branches. Their feet are prehen- 

 sile, and can in consequence take a firm, strong grip 

 of twigs and branches. So accurately and swiftly 

 can they spring, that birds often fall victims to them, 

 for, lying concealed at sundown on a branch, a galago 

 will launch itself at a bird on a twig, even ten feet or 

 more distant, and securing it, will on the instant 

 obtain a secure footing. 



The diet of the galago consists of any kinds of 

 small lizards, edible insects, fruits, the gum which 

 oozes from the trunk and branches of the acacia 



