The Oologisis" Record^ March i, 1921. 



After these arid spots Mombasa, where we anchored in Kihndini 

 Harbour on 24th July, seemed a veritable paradise : it was dehghtful 

 to see once more the palm trees and baobabs and watch through the 

 glasses the gay-coated Weavers flying to and fro among the tropic 

 vegetation that fringes the coral cliffs. We stayed here six days, 

 but I had only one short bird excursion, the fruits of which I will 

 incorporate with observations made on my return to Mombasa 

 after visiting Zanzibar, where I stayed from 31st July till 9th August. 

 Only on one day, 8th August, did my work permit of an outing in 

 the most interesting Island of Zanzibar. 



In the morning I visited a small verdure-clad islet in the harbour 

 where Herons, probably MelanopJwyx ardesiaca (IVagl.), are said 

 to have bred, but found nothing. In the afternoon a friend took me 

 a delightful short trip by motor-cycle to a swamp where a colony 

 of the Golden-yellow Weaver, Plocens aiireoflavus, A. Sm., were 

 breeding in the ambatch {Herminiera sp. — a leguminous shrub). 

 The nests, comparatively small, neatly shaped, and without spout, 

 remjnded me of those of P. casfanops, Shell., of Lake Victoria, which 

 belongs to the same sub-genus {Xanthophilus, of Reichenow). 

 One often finds that similarity of nest-structure confirms affinities 

 postulated on other grounds. I took in all nine eggs, all of uniform 

 unspotted pale blue colour. Most of the nests contained young. 



Returning by way of the Island of Pemba, where birds are 

 scarce in the dense gloomy groves of clove-trees, duty kept me in 

 Mombasa from nth August till 8th September. During this 

 time, besides many short walks on the island itself, I was able to 

 extend my acquaintance with a locality on the mainland south of 

 Mombasa, which I had first discovered as a haunt of birds in July- 

 August, 1918. 



It is always a little difficult to convey a right impression of a 

 place to those who have not seen it, and I think this is especially 

 true of any part of the tropics. Let me try, however, to bring the 

 reader with me in spirit to Ras Mwaka Singe, the name b}- which 

 I know the locality, taken from the Arab-Swahili for the ocean head- 

 land on the east of it. We cross from Mombasa Island in a native 

 ferry, oxev the deep sea-arm that leads to Xilindini, and in a quarter 

 of an hour land at Likona on the mainland, whence the road runs 

 southward, more or less parallel with the coast on one's left, to 

 Vanga and so right on down to the old German border. Between 



