24 



r could have no control have kept me a close prisoner at this camp 

 since lašt October. My coUection of birds comprises up to the pre- 

 sent time 103 species, some of which are, I think, new. Of Hawks 

 I have five kinds, including two species of Miltus. The latter feed 

 entirely on grasshoppers, are most cowardly birds, and utter a pecu- 

 liar shrill vrailing ory. The first I procured was of a rery uniform 

 dark, dirtj- brown colour. It v?as common on our first arrival here, 

 but disappeared about December, and was soon replaced by Milvu^ 

 affinis, which has latterly become very numerous, and now perches 

 in hundreds on the trees around the camp. These birds are excellent 

 eatiug, and certainly exceed any other game %\re have here in flavour 

 and tendemess. There are also three Eagles, neither of -vvhicb I have 

 been able to get, for though knocked down with our largest shot, 

 they have got away ; one has a dark-slate upper surface and vdngs, 

 and white breast and belly. It freąuents Sandy Island, the Stony 

 Spit, and other parts of the river where sandbanks aflford good fish- 

 ing ground. The second is smaller, and of a pure white. I have 

 only seen it once, when passing some dangerous rapids in the boat. 

 The third is brown, \vith a very light-coloured and small head and 

 neck, -nhile the wings have an immense expanse. I should mention 

 that one of our men found the black and white Eagle nesting in 

 April. The nešt was of immense size, and eontained a single pūrely 

 white egg of an almost globular form. 



I have three Owls. The Barking Owl of these parts is a fine 

 bird, the upper surface of which is beautifully mottled with dark- 

 red and cinnamon-browns ; while the under surface is white, with a 

 centrai streak of brown in the feathers of the breast. It builds in 

 .the hollows of the huge Gouty-stem tree (Jdansonia) of this coast, 

 and incubates in March and April. Another is a large dirty slate- 

 brown bird, vvith rough, duU yellow beak and legs. I procured one 

 specimen only early in November, most likely a stray bird. The 

 third was an Athene, rather smaller, of a mottled brown. The 

 stomachs of all the specimens of the Athene were crammed with or- 

 thoptera. 



There is one true Caprhnulgus here, of a beautiful warm mottled 

 brown and black, and \vith white on the wings. It lays a dull white 

 or greyish egg, marked with dirty green, at the foot of a tree, on the 

 bare uneven ground. I have two species of JEgotheles, both of 

 ■which I flushed from the holes of trees ; and I have seen a large 

 Padargus, \vith huge cellular mandibles, which was shot by the mate 

 of the schooner, and spoilt by insects when I saAv it. 



About the middle of December a large flight of Swallows arrived 

 from the south, high in the air and out of shot. They remained 

 about us one afternoon, wheeling in the air, but did not pitch, and 

 were gone next morning. A little Martin common here just now 

 (May and June), is equally shy, and I cannot find its place of resort. 

 Two Dacelos are freqiiently seen : one entirely coloured \vith shades 

 of blue and grey, and \vith a crest of lengthened feathers on the 

 back of the head ; the other blue and warm red-brown, with finer 

 and stronger tints than the other, and without a crest. A dull- 



