312



Dr. E. Hopkinson,



hornet to a midge, and towards sunset, when these “ bisso ” (the

native name) are out, one sees nearly every kind of bird from a Horn-

bill or Kite down to a Waxbill or Grass-warbler after them. To

supply one’s captive birds means standing the cages round the lamp

after sunset, which may seem a rather rough proceeding, but so inured to

shocks and jars by months of travelling (by head-load, canoe or

launch), are my birds that this vespertinal awakening is nothing to

them, and interferes in no way with the healthy meal which they

all start at once to make on the insects which flutter or fall into their

cages. Besides providing food for the birds, this arrangement also

has the advantage of providing their owner with half an hour’s

amusement in watching the proceedings, at a time when the day’s

work is done and when the million of these “bisso ” make reading

or in fact doing anything near the light an impossibility.


I hope to be able to catch some more Sunbirds during the

rains, when they are especially plentiful and when too I am more

or less resident in one place and not constantly on the march as

in the dry season, a life not conducive to the collecting or easy

keeping of cage-birds.


No. 3. is a Barbet, Lybius vieilloti I think, he has only

been caught a few days, but is feeding well on “ shotoes ” (a sort

of fig) and other bush-fruits. The gems of my this year’s birds

however, I unfortunately have to speak of in the past tense.

The first was a Striped Kingfisher, Halcyon chelicutensis, which

was brought to me in October, when almost ready to fly. At first

I crammed him with raw chicken or pigeon liver, but he soon took

to feeding himself, and when I found that grasshoppers suited him to

perfection (in fact are the main natural food of these land Kingfishers

and many other birds), he soon began to look after himself and lived

in perfect health till February, when I had hurriedly to go to Head¬

quarters and leave my belongings in charge of the ‘ boys.’ The

result was that on my return this bird was dead. “ He bad re¬

fused to feed as soon as he lost his master ’’ was the stated cause of

death, but of course the real one was neglect and starvation. The

house-boy, who had charge of the birds always got plenty of food for

this one, while I was on the spot to stimulate any slackening of his

efforts in the grasshopper-catching line, but no doubt he, like all his



