126 
TWO RARE EAST AFRICAN ANIMALS 
animal a grotesque appearance. The underparts are greyish 
white. 
The young are born pure white, and one only at a birth. 
The food is also very remarkable, and it took me some time 
to find out what it was : all the stomachs of specimens obtained 
were examined and all contained the same semi-fluid substance 
like boiled tapioca with only tiny specks of insect remains 
and minute particles of some red-skinned fruit. I also found 
in one some particles of small bird’s egg-shell, but more than 
90 per cent, of the stomach contents in all cases was this sticky 
white jelly which I afterwards found to be gum. 
My living specimen, which has been eight weeks in captivity, 
seems to be doing well on gum soaked in water with just a little 
banana and other fruit. 
These animals have remarkable strength ; when they hold 
on to anything it is difficult to make them let go. Their hands 
are very human in shape, the thumbs are large, but the index 
finger is rudimentary and like the galagos. They have one 
claw on the first toe of hind foot. 
The animal in captivity shows the most extraordinary 
strength of limb, being able to extend itself horizontally to 
full length while holding by its hind feet to an upright branch. 
In feeding it will as often as not hang head downwards, holding 
the fruit or other food in its paws. 
In this same locality I shot several specimens of another 
rare animal, the large scaly-tailed flying squirrel. This remark- 
able animal is diurnal and amuses itself when nobody is about 
by gliding like an aeroplane across openings and old clearings 
in the forest. They are extremely timid, and when frightened 
lie flat on trunk or large branches of trees, with limbs and flying 
membrane extended, their colour making them invisible at 
even a short distance. The sharp scales on the tail must be 
for the purpose of holding them up after alighting from a 
flight. They seem always to alight on the well-exposed lower 
perpendicular part of a tree with legs extended, the scales on 
the tail giving them time to get a grip with their feet before 
falling. 
It is extremely difficult to make them leave a tree in which 
they have taken refuge. I found it necessary to send a boy 
