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our resident Warblers are the Cisticoloe, true Grass- 

 Warblers in every way, as they are hardly ever seen 

 away from the long grass. They are all small brown 

 birds, many of them tiny fan-tailed mites, and a few 

 quite Wren- like in their looks and movements. 



ZOSTEROPID^. Of this family, members of 

 which from other parts of the world have become in 

 recent years such common cage-birds in England, we 

 have one species in Gambia, the Senegal White-eye 

 (Z. senegalaisis), which is common throughout the 

 country. One never comes across one of the wild 

 fig-trees, of which the fruit is ripe, without finding a 

 number of these birds there, hunting every branch 

 and twig, — in action and movements resembling a 

 Tit, or perhaps more exactly a Goldcrest, — not so 

 much, I think, for the fruit, which attracts so many 

 other birds, as the Barbets, Orioles etc., as for the 

 small insects which swarm among the clusters of 

 small green figs. 



Of the SUNBIRDS we have about seven species, 

 three of which are quite common : namely Nedarinia 

 pidchella, Cinnyris splendidus, and Chalcotnitra sene- 

 galensis. In Bathurst they frequent the gardens, 

 while up-country they are usually seen in the trees 

 and luxuriant vegetation near the river or the swamps. 

 They flit or climb like Tits about the trees, especially 

 those in flower, calling to each other continually with 

 short sweet chirps. They begin to breed about May, 

 and continue nesting, I think, all through the rains 

 until October. One of the few nests containing eggs 

 which I have found in this country was a Sunbird's, 

 as I know for certain, for I saw the sitting bird several 

 times leave her post. {^N. pulchella, the Beautiful 

 Sunbird, I think). The nest was suspended from the 

 end of a branch of a thorn-tree, about six feet from 

 the ground, and was made of fine grass ornamented 

 outside with lichens, and lined within with fine hairs 



