1 92 1.] Birds of Northern Rliodesia. G15 



Sandpipers were on their return migration. I have always 

 previously seen this species in Africa on the banks of ra}iid 

 rivers similar to its breeding-haunts at home, but these birds 

 were by stagnant pools and doubtless merely breaking their 

 journey. 



Among the remarkable features of the country are the 

 anthills, their numbers are extraordinary, and their size at 

 times prodigious ; they are reported to be largest on 

 good soil, and sometimes are nearly as big as wheat stacks. 

 In some parts of the open bush all the trees and shrubs 

 grow on anthills, the ground between being covered with 

 grass or at times sour and bare ; the size of some of the trees 

 o-rowino- on the antliills indicates that the latter when very 

 large are of immense age. It is possible that the heavy 

 summer rainfall is the cause of the bushes growing only on 

 the anthills in these spots, or it may be that animals do not 

 destroy the seedlings on them ; if it were not for their 

 presence much more of the country apparently would be 

 open grass plains, therefore the anthills would seem to have 

 a very important effect on the distribution of the birds. Tiie 

 usual shape of these great anthills in the bush was similar 

 to the small ones at home, but on the flats by the Kafue 

 River, where they occurred, they were generally cone-shaped 

 with sides so steep that they were dithcult to climb. 



We spent our first month, excepting two days when \\e 

 crossed a part of the river fiats, in the country described 

 al)ove ; there wei"e plenty of birds which, if often unobtain- 

 able, were of interest — the Grey Lourie (Schhorhis concolor) 

 and two or three species of liornbill were very consj)icuous, as 

 well as Coracias caudatus. I kept a sharp look-out for C spatu- 

 latus, but we did not meet with it, and I only saw one s[)ec!men 

 of Merops nuhicoides, which was flying at a considerable 

 height ; a race of MelittopJuu/us pudllus and M. bullockoides 

 were the only other Bee-eaters I identified. Woodpeckers 

 were not often met with ; I saw and heard one makino- a 

 drum-call on a dead tree like our Spotted Wood[)eckers do 

 at home, but the note was far more powerful; unluckily I 

 was unable to determine the s])ecies, possibly it was Thriplas 



