PIGEONS- FR ANCOLINS 159 



built as the more graceful egret, and their shorter, stouter 

 bills are yellow instead of black, as also are their legs. 



Curiously enough they are, on the islands, no more 

 plentiful than the true egret, perhaps because there are 

 no cattle to collect them together in flocks. 



Doves were common, but several notable species found 

 on the mainland were never seen on the islands — for 

 example, the small, long tailed ^na capensis, seen at Jinja. 

 A forest species, whose long drawn out call was heard 

 coming from the tops of tall trees when I examined patches 

 of forest on the Kyagwe coast, was never heard in the 

 island forests. The beautiful green fruit pigeon (Viiiago), 

 with red bill, was quite common, as might be expected 

 from the abundance of fig trees growing on the rocky 

 shores. It has a long and rather complicated call, which 

 one soon got to know, but found impossible to imitate. 



Game Birds are chiefly remarkable for their absence. 

 No guinea fowls were ever seen or heard, nor any of the 

 larger " bush-partridge " (species of Francolin), It is 

 possible that they had been exterminated by natives 

 trapping them in the old days before the outbreak of 

 Sleeping Sickness. 



A certain loud, ringing cry was so frequently heard 

 from the depths of the forest belt on Bugalla that I soon 

 became thoroughly familiar with it. But it was long 

 before I found out what was the bird responsible for it. 

 One day in the forest a bird that at the time was noted 

 to be of the partridge type, ran out from a clump of thick 

 undergrowth, but seeing me almost at once dived back 

 again. It was undoubtedly the bird that was responsible 

 for the well-known cry that had been coming from that 

 spot. Further knowledge of birds made it obvious that 

 this must have been one of the forest Francolins. 



I believe that this bird has much increased its range 

 on the islands since those days. Between December 3rd, 

 1918, and mid-February 1919, I examined thoroughly a 



