EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS. 731 



attempting to vencli the bait of liyrax meat only a liimdred feet 

 from my tent. I got up at 4 a.m. without having heard tlieshot 

 and senfc a boy to remove the gun,-giving him a lamp. ]Ie found 

 the guu had gone off, .and stooping over the ground followed the 

 spoor, when (he said) an animal menaced him just as he cnught 

 sight of its wounded mate — the la.mji chose this moment to go 

 out ! He cried out, and came running back very frightened under 

 the im[)ression. that there were two leopards. 1 then went and 

 shot it through the head, it having dragged itself some fifteen 

 feet from the trap. 



Its stomach contents consisted of a great many house-rats 

 (/?. r. alexandrimis)^ and the remains of a skink (jC. ferraiidi). 

 My captive serva,l showed a. marked preference for chicken meat, 

 though it would take vegetables at times. The stomach of 

 another wild scrval Iiekl nothing but grass, possibly seized after 

 it had been tnipped, as it was gin-tra.pped. Another was killed 

 entering a gun-trap baited Avith a live goat; yet another was 

 tra,nsfixed by a. native's spear as it was eating the native's fowl — 

 ib was in very lean condition, which may account for it hunting 

 fowls in daylight at 5 p.m.. 



I encomitcred a serval at Cha,n;'.uru at mid-day on one occasion, 

 the sun being at full strength at the time. The animal was in 

 the road, which was hedged in by a,loos so that it could not easily 

 escape, and I chased it for some way on my cycle. Berval Avere 

 several times <listurbed in long grass countrj'-, but they are very 

 active and get n,way almost before one has time to shoot. 



Twenty fleas {Ctenocefiludus fells) were taken from one specimen, 

 which was also afillicted with ticks {.I/cemaphi/salis leacJu). 



Felis ocreata ugjand^ Schwann. 



Kilenga in Kikami, Kimburu in Kisagara, Mvugi in Chigogo,, 

 Titu in Kinyaturu and Kiramba ; Paka wa pori in Kiswahili. 



Ten specimens from Ilonga, Kondoa, Tindiga, Kilosa, Dodoma,. 

 Mdjengo s, and Mtali s. 



The largest male measured 583. 285. 133. 61 mm., and female 

 530. 308. 120. 60 mm. Tail-lengths seem to vary considerably 

 and not in even ratio with the body-length. 



In the sandy thorn-bush country (Dodoma to Mtali's) the Cats. 

 were of a very pale type, and I was inclined to think, after 

 comparing the four skins with the six from Kilosa district, that 

 they indicated a. pale type. Just before I left East Africa, how- 

 ever, Capb. Godman shot a very pale example at Ivilosa, almost 

 in the S])ot where I had obbained some of the dark ones: it was 

 quite indisbinguishable from the thorn-bush type. 



The dark wild cats are typical wild tabbies, and undoubtedly 

 interbreed with domestic cats at times. At Kondoa I was shown 

 a litter of six blind kittens under a pile of logs on the outskirts- 

 of an estatei Two of the kittens were all black, and four tawny- 

 fcabby. The house cat of the owner of the plantation was a black 



