BIRDS OF THE CONGO 
very long feather in the wing, and in 
one of these species the feather has a 
bare shaft and racquet-like tip, so that 
in flight at dusk the bird looks as though 
pursued by two smaller ones, hovering 
continually a little above and behind. 
In the posts of the Uele, on moonlight 
nights in the dry season the large-eyed 
stone curlews (Gdicnemus) walk about on 
the ground uttering at intervals a series 
of shrill whistles. 
These calls puzzled 
us at first, for the 
streaked brown 
plumage of the 
birds made them 
difficult to see, and 
they spent the day 
in quiet spots along 
the rivers, coming 
to the stations to 
feed only at night. 
Weused towatchat 
twilight for a choc- 
olate-black hawk 
( Macherhamphus ) 
that seldom flies 
by daylight, but 
subsists largely on 
small bats, flying 
rapidly about in 
the growing dark- 
ness, swift as a fal- 
con. This peculiar 
hawk although rare 
in collections, ranges widely over Africa, 
and we observed it all across the Belgian 
Congo. 
The natives often secured good speci- 
mens, sometimes with their arrows, and 
brought them to us, to secure in ex- 
change some coveted gilt tacks, tablets 
of salt, or other small objects they con- 
sidered valuable. They procured us 
even the great crowned eagle (Spizaétus 
coronatus), a forest species preying on 
monkeys. This bird makes an enor- 
291 
mous nest—under one of which I once 
spent the better part of three days wait- 
ing for the bird, pestered by tiny ticks 
and honeybees. Some of the natives 
used birdlime made by boiling a rubber- 
like sap together with palm oil, a method 
however which we always discouraged. 
But it was by trapping that they 
There were 
many birds in the forest, living on and 
aided us most effectively. 
Immature specimen of crown eagle (Spizaétus coronatus) 
near the ground that were exceedingly 
difficult to see, and some of these we 
were hardly able to get save through this 
codperation. The Medje and Mangbetu 
tribes make a very good trap. A young 
tree is trimmed and its stem bent over 
to serve as a spring; attached to this is 
a slipknot, which is jerked taut when 
anything touches a horizontal stick in 
the middle of the noose. These traps 
are set in the game paths in the forest or 
in cultivated fields, and baited with 
