On the Birds of Efulen in Kamerun. 89 



| (Ibis, 1904, p. 605). 



V. — Field-notes on the Birds of Efulen in the West-African 

 Colony of Kamerun. By George L. Bates*. 



1. Agapornis pullaria 



2. Agapornis zenkeri 

 As I have not distinguished these two species from one 



another, they must be spoken of together. They resemble 

 minature Parrots in their tones and actions as well as in 

 their appearance. They go about in small flocks, making 

 little metallic squeaky cries, which vet have something in 

 them recalling the screams of Parrots. They like open 

 country, and especially the tall grass called " nkae," from 

 which they get their Bulu name of " Kos-nkae " (" kos " 

 meaning Parrot) ; hence they are more common inland, for 

 grass is scarce within a hundred miles of the coast. 



At the back of my house at Efulen was a sort of wild fig- 

 tree, and when its fruit was ripe a flock of these little birds 

 often visited it. Among them were apparently young birds, 

 which would sit on a limb making a great racket and fluttering 

 their wings till the others brought them food. 



3. Ortholophus albocristatus (t. c. p. 609). 



This is strictly a forest-bird. It makes a practice of flying- 

 near the ground under the trees where a company of monkeys 

 is feeding, and picks up the fruit that they drop. I have 

 seen an individual joining with smaller birds in pecking at 

 a swarm of " driver " ants on the ground. It has a most 

 disagreeable cry, resembling the squawking of a hen when 

 caught. Usually I have observed it solitary, but one day, 



* [These notes were prepared to accompany Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's 

 paper on the birds of Efulen, which appeared in the last number of ' The 

 Ibis ' (1904, p. 591). Unfortunately they arrived too late for insertion, 

 but are of so much interest that they deserve publication. Mr. Bates has 

 now gone on a six months' holiday to Illinois, U.S.A., after which he 

 proposes to return to "West Africa and resume his work. A map of 

 the northern part of the Balu district of Kamerun, in which Efulen is 

 marked, will be found in the ' Mittheilungen von Eorschungsreisenden 

 und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten,' vol. xii. p. 38 (1899). 

 — Edd.] 



