Birds of Efulen in Kamerun. 91 



example I saw one of these birds sitting alone and uttering 

 a call, consisting of a clear loud note repeated six or eighl 

 times or more, when a pause ensued. Sometimes there was 

 a quaver or "cracked" tone in its voice. It kept this up 

 till some little birds of another kind came to annoy it, 

 when, after a few sallies at them, it flew away. When I 

 had learned this bird's call I found that it was not rare, 

 for I heard it again several times in different places. 



7. Merops albicollis (Ibis, 190-1, p. 611). " Nso'oloii." 

 Though I have sometimes seen one or two of these birds 



together, perched conspicuously on a bare twig, yet I have 

 more often noticed them in small flocks. Sometimes a party 

 comes and occupies the topmost branches of a large tree, 

 with much twittering. Sometimes they circle or skim high 

 in the air like slow-moving Swifts. I have more than once 

 seen flocks circling over the waters of a good-sized stream, 

 into which they took occasional plunges and out of which 

 they emerged quickly, shaking their feathers. There is an 

 air of distinguished grace about this bird, not only in the 

 fine curves of its body, but in all its movements. It is not 

 so much beautiful as elegant. 



8. Cypselus batesi (t. c. p. 612). 



The unique specimen was caught alive by a boy in a large 

 mud-nest plastered on the underside of an overhanging rock, 

 in a small bit of forest near a stream between two plantations. 

 The nest was evidently an abandoned Swallow's nest ; there 

 were remains of others beneath the same rock. But the 

 Swift must have been sitting on its own eggs. There were 

 two white eggs in the nest almost hatched. 



9. Coryth^ola cristata (Shelley, Cat. B. xix. p. 119). 

 Though the " Kunduk " was not included in Dr. Sharpens 



list, I venture to put it in here as a companion to the next, 

 the " Mba." 



This species roams about in small parties among the high 

 trees of the forest, flying over the tops or running along the 

 branches. When one is winged it will run along the ground 

 like a Turkey, and often escapes through the underbrush. 



