288 BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
The young of the great Galago are exquisite little creatures like Chinchillas. 
It would appear to be an animal of rather slow growth, and the young are 
therefore taken by Europeans to be a different species to the full grown 
animal. 1 
There is not much remarkable about the bats of British Central Africa so 
far as I am aware. They have been chiefly collected by Dr. Percy Rendall who 
was for a time our medical officer on Lake Nyasa. Prior to this Dr. Rendall 
was Colonial Surgeon at the Gambia. Whilst in that West African Colony he 
shot one day a curious white-winged bat which was named “ Vesperugo rendalli 
The specimen he sent home from the Gambia was the only one known. Years 
afterwards, however, Dr. Rendall caught a bat on the Upper Shire, and to his 
surprise found it was identical with the white-winged bat of the Gambia. As 
Mr. Oldfield Thomas observes in his paper on the mammals of Nyasaland, 
“ It is a curious coincidence that the second known capture of this bat should 
take place in a country so far distant from the Gambia as Nyasa, and that it 
should be due to the very same naturalist who originally discovered it and after 
whom it was named. There appear to be no differences of the least importance 
between the Gambian and Nyasan examples.” 
Two species of fruit-eating bats are found in Nyasaland. 2 
Among the insectivores which are few in Central Africa, are the long-nosed, 
jumping shrews. One genus ( Petrodrovius) (about the size of a large rat) has 
the nose merely prolonged into a long snout; but the more specialised 
genus (. Rhynchocyon ) has a positive proboscis. In spite of the development 
of the snout these are pretty little animals. They soon die when captured, 
which is the more to be regretted as with their large eyes and soft fur they 
would make admirable pets. 
The carnivora are well represented in this country. Firstly, we have the lion 
—almost too abundant—and the leopard, still more common. The handsome 
serval-cat is also found everywhere throughout the whole of British Central 
Africa. Their kittens are easily reared and stand confinement well ; one which 
I kept for three years in captivity is now in the Zoological Gardens. These 
serval-cats become tame to a certain extent, but never as absolutely friendly as 
a pet leopard. The serval resents caresses and is ready to strike out with its 
sharp claws. Still upon such occasions as when those that I kept escaped 
they submitted in a somewhat docile manner to be laid hold of and hauled 
about, and their cage could always be entered by the negro attendant without 
any aggressive action on their part. 
The serval appears to me to be an interesting form for the reason that I 
think it represents a more generalised type of true cat, something akin to the 
primal feline stock from which the cheetah branched off a little lower down. 
The serval suggests the cheetah in many ways while it also has a marked 
1 The leaping powers of all the Galagos are remarkable, but reach their highest development 
perhaps, in the great Galago. In West Africa I used to be much struck with the bat-like movements of 
the smaller Galagos. A tame one would suddenly leap -from my hand—I had almost said “ fly ”—two 
yards away to the window-pane and there kill a moth or fly that was buzzing against the glass. The swift 
movements of the great Galago still more resemble flight, and it has a habit of slightly spreading out the 
limbs, especially the arms, as it noiselessly jumps through the air. It can jump horizontally or upwardly ; 
its leaps are not necessarily downwards. The large pads on the under surface of almost all the fingers 
except one (for a faithful feature throughout all the Lemuroids is that one finger remains thin and provided 
with a sharp claw, whereas the other fingers and toes are padded and provided with square nails) seem to 
assist this lemur in breaking the shock of its jumps, and enabling it to cling to almost any surface. 
1 cannot help thinking that the flight of the bats began in some such way as this, especially if the bats 
arose rather through a Lemuroid type than as a section of the Insectivora. 
2 Xantharpyia and Epomophorus. 
