CUCKOOS— BARBETS 167 



bird, the Sekoko is very obviously a cuckoo, both when 

 seen perching and on the wing. It seems to call only 

 during the two periods of greatest rainfuU, when it is 

 presumably breeding. 



The other cuckoo whose note is familiar is the 

 " Ekirimululu," (Chrysococcyx caprius or C. klaasi), one 

 of the bronze cuckoos, a small species, metallic green 

 above and whitish beneath. The native name, like so 

 many others, is doubtless onomatopoeic. 



Another group, the Barbels, is strangely unfamiliar on 

 the islands. One of the commonest of all, the little Copper- 

 smith {Barbatula leucolaima), has never been heard on 

 any island, although its monotonous " Tonk-tonk-tonk " 

 can be heard all day long in the Entebbe gardens. Their 

 absence from the islands was made more noticeable when 

 in January 1919 I went across to the Kyagwe coast from 

 the camps on Kerenge and Wema. Almost immediately 

 one landed on the mainland one heard the well known 

 metallic note in the forest, together with the notes of 

 other birds not present on the islands. 



Larger, red breasted barbets have not been noticed 

 either there, but they do not force themselves upon one's 

 attention as does the persistent coppersmith. 



The next family, Coliidae, is easily dealt with, for they 

 are absent from islands that have been visited, and since 

 I was quite familiar with them at Jinja before I first went 

 on to the islands, they would certainly have been seen or 

 heard, for I know the twittering sound they make very 

 well ; it is constantly heard in the gardens at Entebbe. 



We now come to the Rollers and their allies. Rollers 

 themselves may be dismissed in a few words, for I never 

 saw one on the islands. I had seen them at Jinja in 1910, 

 and thus knew their appearance, and, having seen them 

 in numbers during the East African campaign, was on the 

 look out for them when I returned to the islands in Decem- 

 ber 1918, but the result was the same. 



