Birds of Southern Kamerun. 19 



which, on dissection, proved to be a female, not yet very 

 near the laying time. It must have been providing its 

 breeding-hole long beforehand — unless these holes are made 

 to live in, and not for breeding only. That these little 

 birds do their own excavating there can be no doubt. While 

 the bird I have just mentioned was kept a prisoner alive in 

 its hole for a few hours, it did some vigorous hewing, trying 

 to cut its way out. The wood was half-decayed. 



In the stomachs of birds of this species and the last have 

 several times been found, besides Iruit, what looked like 

 small moth-cocoons. 



738. Verreauxia africana. [Obo'o-Minkorakome.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p 44J.. 



In my note in 'The Ibis ^ (1905, p. 91:5) I spoke of seeing 

 one of these tiny Woodpeckers peck the grub out of the 

 heart of the stem of a small common endogenous plant. 

 That this plant is the usual souice of their food is proved by 

 the Bulu appellation, for the long word forming the second 

 half of the bird^s name is that of the plant mentioned, 

 while " Obo'o " means '' hewer." But I have also seen 

 one of these birds pecking at the bark of a tree, making a 

 tapping noise almost as loud as that made by an ordinary 

 Woodpecker. 



One day a boy brought me a treasure in the shape of a 

 section of the end of a small stump, about three inches in 

 diameter, green up to about half a foot from the top; and 

 in this dry end, which was still hard and little decayed, a 

 hole had been bored, in which were two tiny white eggs. He 

 brought also the bird caught in the hole, a Verreauxia, which 

 I skinned and numbered 2866 ; it was a male, and yet the 

 abdomen shewed that it had been sitting. The cavity 

 excavated in the dry end of the stump had a diameter of 

 about 40 mm. and a depth oh' about 50 mm., and the 

 entrance-hole, round as if bored by an auger, would just 

 admit a 12-bore gun cartridge (about 20 mm. in diameter). 

 Size of the eggs 14 x 12 mm. and 13'5 x ir5 mm. 



[Two eggs are of a blunt rounded oval shape, slightly 

 glossy and pure white. — O.-G.] 



c2 



