THE SMALLER FAUNA OF MOUNT ELGON 98 
yellow vent (Pycnonotus). This active bird is quite common 
at both localities and also ranges several miles up the mountain, 
becoming however less numerous towards 9000 feet. 
Probably a fuller investigation of the bird world than I was 
able to make would reveal other forms common to both plains 
and escarpment. One cannot hope to do more than touch the 
surface of the bird list in the space of five or six weeks in any 
one locality. The Starlings ( Onycognathus ) made the bright 
sunny mornings on the escarpment seem still brighter with their 
cheerful notes, and their parties in joyful flight from tree to 
tree or rock to rock, up and down the ravine where I lived, 
were indeed worth going far to see. Their handsome black 
plumage contrasted with the chestnut colour of their wings ; 
when flying in a party they are very pretty. They appeared 
to roost in couples on a shelf or in a cleft of the great rock face. 
As a rendezvous in the early morning they chose an enormous 
tree close to the cliff face, and different pairs arrived from time 
to time till a party was formed of twenty to thirty individuals. 
But it has been amongst the rats and bats, the mice, lemurs, 
squirrels, moles and so forth that the chief interest of my work 
has lain. 
The secrets as to its smaller mammals which old Elgon 
has so long held have now in great part been divulged and show 
a lengthy list of new species and subspecies, and also one new 
genus. 
The ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History ’ for Decem- 
ber 1909 and February 1910 contain the report of most of the 
new forms from Elgon, and referring to it I find described the 
one new genus Uranomys and no fewer than nine new species 
of bats, shrews, rats, mice and dassies, besides eight new sub- 
species of various other small animals. This includes most 
of the forms obtained up to reaching Mumias on the return 
journey. There are still some further new forms to be described 
from Kakamega and the Nandi forest. 
How rich Elgon seems to be in its smaller mammals ! 
As my last advices from home state, there seems to be no end 
of them. When the complete list of old and fresh forms from 
Elgon and district is made up, it will, J think, prove to be one 
of exceptional length. 
