BIRDS OF THE CONGO 
azure cuckoo- 
shrikes and flaming 
bishop-birds. 
The Congo fur- 
nishes some exam- 
ples of birds of 
most remarkable 
instincts. The 
honey guide fully 
merits its fame for 
attracting men 
with its chattering 
ery and leading 
them to beehives 
in order that it 
may share in the 
spoils. A bird of 
the more open grass 
country, it greets 
you with an insist- 
ent “cutta-cutta- 
cutta-cutta!’’, flies 
off ahead, and if 
you have time to 
follow it, will take 
you to the hive it 
knows of, although 
you will then have to watch and listen 
yourself for the bees, while your inform- 
ant sits quietly watching in some nearby 
tree. Honey guides eat a good deal of 
beeswax; in preparing the specimens we 
usually found some in their stomachs, 
even in those of some of the smaller re- 
lated species that do not call upon man 
for assistance. 
The nesting habits of hornbills, of 
which we secured no fewer than ten 
different species, are especially curious. 
‘The eggs are laid in a hole in a tree, 
where the female is confined until her 
young are fully ready to leave, perhaps 
some six weeks. The entrance is par- 
tially closed with muddy material, and 
food is brought to her regularly by her 
mate; in fact the nests were discovered 
by watching his movements. Natives 
287 
The pennant-winged nightjar (Macrodipteryx vexillarius) hunts at 
night in the open grass country. 
termites are leaving their nests at dusk 
It assembles in flocks when the winged 
stated that the female sheds all her quills 
from both wings and tail, during this 
period, and we found that in some cases 
at least this was true. 
The collector in the Congo has often 
great difficulty in approaching birds, 
especially in the great trees of the Ituri 
forest, where a bird on the upper branches 
may be one hundred and twenty. feet 
above anyone standing beneath the 
tree. Yet certain species were seldom 
seen elsewhere, just as certain others 
skulked continually im dense under- 
brush. Since my return I have been 
struck by the comparative tameness of 
many American birds, and have won- 
dered to what to ascribe it. Can it 
be that the abundance of mankind, 
instead of making them wary, actually 
causes them to become indifferent, or 
