TRAPPING AND COLLECTING IN SOMALILAND 269 
to my thinking, a beautiful coat, making a very handsome 
trophy) appears to be trapped much more easily than his 
cousin, the spotted hyaena [Hycena crociita). Next, let us 
take jackals, which are very numerous in this country, and 
many of which are little known. These animals cannot 
well be shot. In the first place, one can never get near 
enough to them to shoot them with the gun, and if one 
fires a rifle at them, the skin is in nine cases out of ten 
utterly ruined. They must be trapped. Let it be remem- 
bered that when I advocate trapping I am addressing true 
sportsmen, i.e., those who wish merely to collect specimens 
for public or private museums, not the professional skin- 
hunter. May the latter pest be for ever excluded from 
Somaliland ! 
After the jackals, in order of size, come innumerable small 
animals — many of which are, no doubt, totally unknown to 
science — such as badgers, otters (look for a light-coloured 
one at the Webbi Shebeyli ; he must be there, although he 
has never been seen), porcupines, stoats, weasels, ratels, 
mungoQses, rock rabbits, ground squirrels, gerbils, bats, 
rats, and mice, all of which cannot easily be collected with 
gun or rifle. It may encourage others to hear that during 
my last expedition I discovered no less than three animals 
new to science. Birds are, to mv thinking, best collected 
with a small-bore gun and dust shot, as they are apt to 
knock themselves about in traps, so I will dismiss the idea 
of setting traps for them. The birds of Somaliland are far 
better known than the animals, especially the small animals, 
every one of which collected should be carefully preserved. 
But first catch your hare. I have tried a good number 
of traps at home and abroad, and have come to the conclu- 
sion that there are but three worth a trial. These three 
are the oldest, and perhaps the best known of any — namely, 
the ordinary ‘ gin ’ trap, the common mouse-trap, and the 
well-known poacher s twisted wire noose and pegs. The 
two most useful sizes in ‘ gin’ traps {i.e.^ the ordinary iron 
or steel rat-trap acting with a spring) are those wfith 4- inch 
