242 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
lamed through having their toes bitten off, so I refused any more 
and kept only a few pairs separately caged. 
As a change from our bush existence we moved to the vicinity 
of Dodoma, where we were kindly offered accommodation by 
a mission society. 
One of my most vivid memories of this place was an attempt to 
capture some Amethyst Starlings that came to feed on the fruit 
of some very tall fig-trees bordering the river which, at the time 
of our visit, was a dry sandy watercourse. This bird is a beautiful 
creature—the male having its upper parts and breast metallic 
violet, with white under parts. The female is quite different, hay- 
ing a thrush-like appearance—brown above with streaked under 
parts. The immature males are like the hens, and it is hard to 
know if one has true pairs, for it has often happened in captivity 
that an apparent hen has changed into the male plumage after 
several years. The immature males seem variable in this respect 
—some getting their adult plumage the first year and others after 
three or four years. 
In order to have everything ready for the early morning visit of 
these starlings, I climbed one of the largest fig-trees late one after- 
noon and spent more than an hour in the tree-top setting nets 
between the branches. The following morning about an hour 
after sunrise I returned hopefully to see the result of my labors. 
On looking up I cursed when I saw that the nets were clustered 
with Straw-colored Fruit Bats that had got in during the night. 
There were seventeen in all and I now had a tiring worthless job 
in front of me. Fruit Bats become inextricably entangled in flue 
nets—the long membranous wings and wing-hooks being the 
source of the trouble. 
Any attempt at freeing these while the bat is alive means a 
danger of being bitten. Even when I had safeguarded against this 
I was unable to free many specimens, so was reluctantly compelled 
to hit them on the head and cut off their wings, for they were 
then easy to extricate. Some had babies and it was interesting to 
see the young one clinging to its mother’s body—apparently car- 
ried in this fashion without hindrance when the mother is in 
flight. A Fruit Bat that has been in a net for some time manages 
