l80 BKOOKLYX .MISKIM SCIENCE BULLETIN 3. 5. 
specimens is to creep up softly to one of these 'active volcanoes,' when 
one can often see the hindless hard at work shooting out the mud. A 
good stout stick witli a nail al the end or a small Somali spear can then 
be thrust in rapidly and the rat transfixed." 
Writing of the same species, Capt. Bottego (I'arona and Cattaneo, 
1893) has this to say: "They snort lightly, almost like a new born pig 
and resemble them in their movements. They are very ferocious and if 
touched with a stick, open their mouths and leap on it and bite it, holding 
it tight between their teeth, with great strength. We put three of them 
in an enclosure and there was a regular battle. After more assaults, 
one bit the other and held him tighter than a bulldog holds a collie. I 
took one of those fighting by the tail, and suspended it in the air, but even 
with a few blows on the head, I could not separate them. It is a very 
irascible animal. When they are put alive into tubes, in order to kill 
them by covering with alcohol, they make incredible efforts not to be stuck 
in, and being stuck in, to get out. They swell very large. If they are 
tickled, they become so irritated as to turn from a light reddish to a 
purplish. The ventral surface of the bod}-, when alive, is swelled and 
with this they almost touch the plane on which they walk. Excluding 
their nature and ferocity, they seem like an animal just born. They dig 
with the mouth and hind feet." 
Hollister (1919) records the following interesting notes from Heller's 
journal of the Rainey Expedition. "This morning near camp I saw 
several of the Helerocepholus throwing dirt out of their burrows. Little 
puffs of sand were coming out at intervals. The animal could not be seen 
and was apparently below the mouth of the burrow. . . . At 5 F'. M. I 
saw several Heferoccplialiis throwing sand out of the l)urrows. I stood 
over one of the holes and watched. The animal pushed the dirt to the 
entrance with his head, then turned about and with his hind feet threw 
the dirt out, in a rapid pufl'y fashion, vertically, so that in falling it made 
a funnel-shaped pile about the hole. While he was thus throwing out 
the earth his tail could be seen wagging back and forth. Archers post : 
As we were approaching camp I saw one of the naked mole rats throwing 
sand out in the bright sunshine. They seem, after all, to have no definite 
time for work." 
Allen (1912) has this to say of its habits: "It Avas captured alive by 
one of our Swahili boys who found it running about near our camp fire 
al night. He said that at first it had come near where he was sitting, luit 
he paid no attention until ^liortl}' il returned, when he caught it. I have 
