252 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
and discovered that (unlike normal shrews, which are 
insectivorous) these Nilotic shrews feed on grass-seeds. 
Great was our joy at this capture; but proportionate 
the abyss of disappointment when that night a sudden 
hurricane sprang’ up and blew overboard the cork-setting- 
board with our precious specimens pinned thereon! To 
repair the catastrophe we decided to remain there and try 
ag-ain. Next morning-, alas! though several shrews had 
been trapped, three were devoured, and all were damaged 
by some evil beast unknown. Our only perfect capture 
was a striped rat—perchance he was the delinquent ? 
Eventually we secured more shrews, and while I write 
this, comes the verdict of the zoological authorities that 
our elephant-shrews from Lake No belong to a new 
species, hitherto unknown, though as yet their precise 
systematic status has not been worked out. 
This collecting of the small mammals in wild and 
unknown countries demands no small degree of field-craft, 
and close observation too. The creatures being almost 
entirely nocturnal, one must first presume their existence, 
since one never sees them in life. Next, amidst bound¬ 
less scrub and jungle, it needs a sort of subtle intuitive 
instinct even approximately to locate their hidden homes 
and haunts and to diagnose their habits. And they leave 
no trace and but little to guide. Lowe proved a master 
in this art. Once as we hastened through a deserted 
Nuer village his expert eye descried evidence of “some¬ 
thing new,” and as a result, within two days, several 
“Spiny mice” ( Acomys) took unwilling seats upon the 
setting-boards. 
In these mice, hair on the hindquarters is replaced 
by stiff spiny bristles, as though the species contem¬ 
plated donning the defensive armour of hedgehogs ; or, 
alternatively, were in process of discarding it. 
Trapping involves a lot of attention. The traps may 
cover a wide radius, possibly half a mile away; yet all 
must be inspected at dawn, otherwise hordes of soldier- 
