176 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
found a score of the same species on my arm biting quite pain- 
fully, their little abdomens cocked at right angles to, or well 
over the thorax. Took about twenty species of butterflies. 
July 2. — Whilst walking through some grass near the 
Scotch Church, Nairobi, I heard something rustling in the grass 
behind me, and, on looking round, half expected to see a snake. 
Apparently a brown animal, which I took to be a rat, was 
jumping up and down in the grass, and I caught it, when it 
really proved to be a harlequin quail ( Coturnix delagorguei) 
that had sat so close that it had allowed me to tread upon it, 
badly injuring the head. 
July 3. — Six porcupines (Hystrix galeata) have recently been 
killed on Jack Tate’s estate at Muthaiga. They do a great deal 
of harm, eating quantities of maize cobs, which they obtain 
by gnawing through the stem till the plant falls. Whilst 
visiting there to-day, the bull-terrier came in bristling with 
quills, blood running from its right shoulder, and lame in that 
leg. It was therefore decided to unearth the offender, and four 
kerosene tins of disinfectant were prepared and poured down 
its hole at one entrance, but it did not bolt, so the hole was 
blocked at both entrances and a dozen natives sent into the 
thick scrub behind to beat it out, while Mrs. Tate waited with 
the gun. 
After a wait of nearly twenty minutes there was a grunt 
and a rush through the undergrowth, and the next moment 
the beast dived into its hole, whilst the two dogs who were at 
its heel tumbled in on top. The porcupine is a much bigger 
beast than I imagined, and is not unlike a half-grown pig when 
skinned. There was a tremendous pandemonium as the two 
big dogs and the quills tumbled about in the pit made by the 
blocked-up earth. In less time than it takes to relate, the 
porcupine scrambled out and made through the cover, and we 
in pursuit ; but to make a long account short, it got away in 
the end, after we had followed it up and down through the 
tanglewood and filled my stockings with grass seeds. 
July 13. — When out collecting with one of the boys on the 
plains to-day, I heard him call out the welcome and familiar 
words ‘ Nyoka, Bwana.’ He was some way in advance of me, 
and so I hurried forward, dropping my gun in the grass and 
taking my snake-stick from him, expecting to see one of the 
