WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



of their little holes, venture out of and about their 

 stronghold, leaping and .skipping, running in and out 

 as if playing hide-and-seek. 



The ground-squirrel, living singly or in pairs, often 

 chooses the termite-hills for its habitation, but usually 

 lives in burrows under the ground. In their company, 

 and in that of the mongoose, the dassy (Procavia), too, 

 is found as an inhabitant of the ant-hills, although its 

 true habitats are the rocky hills and mountains. The 

 dassy lives during the rainy season at the foot of the 

 mountains, often in large families in the crannies and 

 cracks in the rocks, and during the dry season climbs 

 up to the high plateaus and the mountains. This small 

 animal, together with the Dendrohyrax, the tree-dassy, 

 is the nearest relation of the bulky rhinoceros, a fact 

 which no doubt astonishes the layman. 



There are three species of rock-dassies and two of 

 tree - dassies found in German East Africa, and the 

 presence of these pygmy ungulates enlivens the virgin 

 forests and the rocky deserts. They are exceedingly 

 shy, and remind one in many ways of the mar- 

 mots. 



The peculiar cry and the burring noise of the tree- 

 dassy can often be heard in the forests of the Kili- 

 manjaro. In the early evening, after the camp-fires 

 are lit, we can see them running about in the trees 

 like woodland sprites, and all night we can hear their 

 clucking noise in the branches of the beroelia and ster- 



258 



