97 



had being for the ants' eggs, which he always picked 

 out first but after they were finished he always cleared 

 up every scrap of the meal or biscuit which formed the 

 basis of the food. He delighted in his bath, taking 

 one whenever he got the chance, and very soon be- 

 came tame enough to take an insect from the fingers,, 

 if it was one he liked ; but his tastes in this line were 

 distinctly delicate, as he would have nothing to say 

 to a grasshopper or other hard-skinned beast, but 

 approved of anything small, soft and squashy, — cock- 

 roaches, even babies, the only sea-luxury available for 

 bird passengers, he would not even look at, so that on 

 board ship his diet was of the simplest, but simple as it 

 was it evidently agreed with him, as he arrived in 

 practically perfect health and condition. 



In Senegal and other parts of French West Africa 

 the native skin-hunters shoot a good many males for 

 their skins, for which they get about a franc apiece^ 

 but I have never seen or heard of a single one being 

 caught alive by the professional native netters, even 

 by those who catch the ordinary Glossy Starlings; the 

 birds' irregular wanderings and comparatively solitary 

 habits are its safeguard, as the native catcher generally 

 sets his nets at water, or at any rate at a place where 

 he can catch numbers at a time : he has no use for 

 birds which can only be caught " one-one," as the 

 expressive language of the Coast has it. From Pholi- 

 dauges' point of view may this long continue, though I 

 must confess to wishing that a specimen or two would 

 find their way to the show-bench, as I am sure such an 

 appearance would cause quite a small sensation among: 

 foreign bird fanciers. 



