252 SAVAGE SUDAN 



and discovered that (unlike normal shrews, which are 

 insectivorous) these Nilotic shrews feed on grass-seeds. 

 Great was our joy at this capture; but proportionate 

 the abyss of disappointment when that night a sudden 

 hurricane sprang" up and blew overboard the cork-setting 

 board with our precious specimens pinned thereon ! To 

 repair the catastrophe we decided to remain there and try 

 again. Next morning, alas ! though several shrews had 

 been trapped, three were devoured, and all were damaged 

 by some evil beast unknown. Our only perfect capture 

 was a striped rat perchance he was the delinquent? 

 Eventually we secured more shrews, and while I write 

 this, comes the verdict of the zoological authorities that 

 our elephant-shrews from Lake No belong to a new 

 species, hitherto unknown, though as yet their precise 

 systematic status has not been worked out. 



This collecting of the small mammals in wild and 

 unknown countries demands no small degree of field-craft, 

 and close observation too. The creatures being almost 

 entirely nocturnal, one must first presume their existence, 

 since one never sees them in life. Next, amidst bound- 

 less scrub and jungle, it needs a sort of subtle intuitive 

 instinct even approximately to locate their hidden homes 

 and haunts and to diagnose their habits. And they leave 

 no trace and but little to guide. Lowe proved a master 

 in this art. Once as we hastened through a deserted 

 Nuer village his expert eye descried evidence of "some- 

 thing new," and as a result, within two days, several 

 "Spiny mice" (Acomys] took unwilling seats upon the 

 setting-boards. 



In these mice, hair on the hindquarters is replaced 

 by stiff spiny bristles, as though the species contem- 

 plated donning the defensive armour of hedgehogs ; or, 

 alternatively, were in process of discarding it. 



Trapping involves a lot of attention. The traps may 

 cover a wide radius, possibly half a mile away; yet all 

 must be inspected at dawn, otherwise hordes of soldier- 



