Birds uf Gazuland. 3 



trees of far finer growth, such as the oil-yiekling Trichilia 

 emetica, a Kigelia with huge sausage-shaped fruits, Sterculia 

 Triphaca, and others. The grass was for the most part fairly 

 short, excepting on the river-banl<s, which were often clothed 

 ■with the luscious growth oi Suryhum halepense and Anatheruni 

 muricatuia, while occasionally between Chil)abava and the 

 coast we passed through patches of dense bush, including 

 a piece of true forest containing some fine Khayas (near 

 Khaya seneyalensis) and a number of magnificent straight- 

 stemmed Sterculias on the Eocene limestone of the Idunda. 

 The portions of the Madanda forests which I visited are 

 simply dense bush, averaging little more than twenty-five 

 feet in height and composed chiefly of such low-growing 

 trees as Crussopteryx Kotschyana and Erytliro.rylun emar- 

 ginatum, the whole being bou^id together with a tangle 

 of vines {Landolphia Kirkii, Secamone zambesiuca, a Lan- 

 dolphia-\ike Salacia, &c.). In their general style these 

 forests are not unlike the denser thickets of the Jihu ; but 

 the latter contain no Landolphia to speak of and consist 

 mostly of other trees, the three commonest being a 

 Brachylana, the wood of which is piized by the natives 

 for bow-making, Conopliaryngia eleyans, and Markhaiaia 

 lanatttj with handsome yellow flowers and fibrous bark, 

 commonly used as a substitute for rope, while throughout 

 the more open jungle of the Jihu Pterocarpus melliferus is 

 quite the commonest tree. At the time of my visit to the 

 Kurumadzi, early in August, the clumps of Leonotis mol- 

 lissima, which form such a characteristic feature of the 

 grass-jungle, were in full bloom and swarming with birds of 

 all kinds. The Leonotis is to the small birds of the Jihu what 

 the " Guuiti " (a large Celtis near C erianiha) is to those of 

 Chirinda, and during my twelve days^ stay I added no less than 

 a hundred and forty interesting specimens to my collection. 

 It may give some idea of the grass-jungle of the Jihu if 

 I state that in order to get about (I was locating a con- 

 cession) we had to cut our way everywhere with axes and 

 hoes, and that the backs of my natives were often pouring 

 with blood, the intense irritation of the ^' buffalo beans " 



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