l82 BROOKLYN MITSEUM SCIENCK lULLKTIX 3. 5. 
opcnini;- ihcy llirow u\) tlic loose saml and earth with their tin}" feet which 
ha\e stiff hairs stickini^;' out from each toe. 'J hey work w ith Hyhtning- 
hke rai)i(lity and when their feet are actually in action it look> like a mini- 
ature volcano in eruption. Strange to sa}', the sand is thrown uj) in such 
a wax that a cone-shaped pile, a foot or more high, is formed aroimd the 
hole. rhe>e strange little animals are ])erfectly at home in the water. 
( )ne of those lirought in was alive. T |)ut it in a jiail of water where it 
swam about .and dived to the bottom for over two hours without any signs 
of drowning. 1 could not keep it there any longer for I was getting ready 
lo mo\e cam]^. ])Oth oi these specimens had, besides ants, some green 
vegetable matter and white roots of grass in their stomachs. Their stom- 
achs were immense for so small a beast and the intestines were very small, 
both were queerly shaped it seemed to me. I found their kind active for 
about a mile west of the Kinna Kiver and there they stopped abrupth' and 
the common mole of East Africa took their place." 
A further examination of the remaining parts of the alimentar\- tract 
of these two specimens reveal the remains of a beetle, a pupal case, a few 
seeds, several small rootlets and grasses and a small quantity of tine 
quartz pebbles. 
Lonnberg (I(jij) has a few observations on this peculiar Naked Rat. 
He writes: " When one sees this quaint and naked being the first impres- 
sion is that it is the new-born young of some large rodent. The naked- 
ness, blindness, com[)aratively small feet but big head make it look like a 
foetus. But the ferociousness with which it at once bites anvbody or any- 
thing that touches it, soon takes away the belief in its youth and harmless- 
ness. It li\es entirely under the ground, and its burrows appear to be long 
biU mostly situated rather near the surface. Here and there the burrow 
has openings through which the earth is thrown out rapidly in thin squirts. 
Often (|uite a number of such little hills are situated near each other in 
rows about the burrov\s." 
Discussion. 
The rodent genus Heicroccphalus has been placed in the Spalacinae, 
close to Rhicoiiiys, by Alston, ]^>randt and Riii)pell, while Thomas, Lonn- 
berg, Drake-Brockman and Hollister place it in the Bathxergidae. l-rom 
all the axailable material and with comparisons which have been made 
with allied forms, it seems unt(uestionable that the latter subfamily is 
correct. The genus has had four species and one subspecies, Hctero- 
ccpliahis (jlahcr, H. (ilahcr prnf/rcdicns, If. pitillif'si, H. aiisori/ci and }f. 
