6 EINAR LONNBERG, MAMMALS COLLECTED BY THE SWEDISH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION ETC. 



were, before mankind altered the natural conditions in East Africa probably » three 

 different kinds of main types of landscape which with their different subtypes, or 

 gradations and intergradations, more or less mixed, occupied the greatest part of the 

 country. These principal kinds of landscape are, or rather were, steppe, thorn- 

 bush and forest* and to this has now to be added the more or less cultivated 

 country with »shambas» or neglected and overgrown former shambas. 



This last type of landscape occupies vast areas, especially in the Kikuyu- and 

 Meru countries. But the mammals living in the shambas and their surroundings, 

 although now in many cases characteristic of the shamba country, are late immi- 

 grants from steppe, or forest and bush. They have found plenty of food there and 

 have come to feed on the crops, or on other animals attracted by the crops. The 

 fauna of the shamba country has accordingly not originated there, and it has not 

 been subjected to special adaptations to live in such surroundings. A great number 

 especially of the somewhat larger mammals only make raids into the shambas, like 

 the baboons, bushpigs, bushbucks, duikers and other antelopes, porcupines, etc. not 

 to speak of the giants, the elephants, and they retire again to their hiding places 

 in bush or forest. But also the recent farmers on the open plains have found that 

 some members of the steppe fauna like zebras and hartebeests etc, may make inva- 

 sions and be destructive to their crops as well. Permanent residents in and at the 

 shambas are a number of rodents and small carnivores, but these can also be found 

 elsewhere, even if they, thanks to the abundance of food in such localities, become 

 more numerous there. Thus, from a biotopographical point of view the mammals 

 of the shamba country do not form a faunistic unit of their own. They are inva- 

 ders from elsewhere, just as the rats {Epimys panya, E. effectus, E. medicatus, E. 

 rattus etc.) which live in and at the native dwellings. 



The shambas are also different in different places according to the crops grown there. 

 In the Kikuyu country where the crop chiefly consists of beans, sweet potatoes, maize, 

 Pennisetum, and other kinds of grain they do not offer suitable conditions for any 

 arboreal animals, and not many hiding places except for quite small mammals. The 

 others have to take their refuge in the bush covering former shambas or other suit- 

 able places and there as well small antelopes (duikers etc.) as carnivorous animals 

 find shelter. In the Meru country where the shambas oftener contain bananas, and 

 above all a number of small trees supporting the Dioscorea-vines even arboreal ani- 

 mals like the »tumbili» -monkey {Gercopithecus pygerythrus) and the small Squirrel 

 {Paraxerus jaclcsoni kahari) feel at home. In addition to this the numerous hedges 

 of spiny Solanums, large Salvias etc. form good hiding places for some mammals like 

 Mungooses, Genets etc. But the cultivated area has not given any new addition to 

 the fauna neither in Kikuyu nor in Meru, even if many species now are more abund- 

 ant in such country than elsewhere. In the following list of mammals such species 

 are enumerated as were collected or observed in or at cultivated land. 



The steppe may be regarded as the most typical landscape in great parts of 

 British East Africa but it exhibits a number of different modifications. The flat 

 open plains like the Athi plains near Nairobi and at Juja with a sometimes scanty, 



