136 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
eggs, are fixed. When one has seen the contortions of the dracaena 
leaves in a strong breeze, one wonders how the parent bird sits, 
and even more how the young one manages to cling to the nest- 
pad, as it must do very soon after hatching. 
In spite of our difficulties we managed to get a fair collection 
in the immediate vicinity of Amani, comprising White-eared 
Barbets, Heuglin’s and Red-capped Robin-chats, African and Eu- 
ropean Golden Orioles, Green-headed Orioles, Usambara Blue- 
billed Finches, Red-eyed Crimson-wings, and Kenya Crested 
Guinea-fowl. The latter is a forest-dwelling and extremely hand- 
some bird, being delicately spotted and having a fine black crest 
and bright blue bare skin on the upper neck, which has the ap- 
pearance of being in folds. So deceptive is this, that a number of 
passengers on the boat home asked me why I had tied blue rib- 
bons round their necks! 
The Blue-billed Finch is a pretty creature with its bright red 
fore-parts and large enamel-like bill, but there is little chance to 
admire its beauty until it is in the hand. It is a skulker and lives 
in the forest undergrowth. One occasionally gets a fleeting glimpse 
of what appears to be a dull bird as it flies away in the gloomy 
light of the forest, but it rarely alights in an open situation where 
one can obtain a good view of it. Its favorite food is the millet-like 
seeds of the curious Bamboo Grass (Olyra latifolia) that grows 
sparingly throughout the forest. The search for patches of this 
was a necessary preliminary to catching the birds: flue nets were 
then set in an adjacent gap in the undergrowth cut for the pur- 
pose. I reckoned these to be the most difficult birds to come by, as 
they did not appear to visit any particular spot regularly. 
In order to get nearer the edge of the forest, where bird-life was 
more varied and easier to collect, we took advantage of the offer 
of an empty house at Sigi, a few miles east of Amani and at a 
much lower altitude. 
This house had been vacant for some years and had fallen into 
disuse. The forest second growth had encroached upon it; in one 
room that had a cement floor there were large cracks which al- 
lowed a free passage for the smaller inhabitants of the jungle; 
and several panes of the leaded windows were missing, permitting 
a host of moths to enter at night, and also a number of bats to 
