506 The last Journal of W. A. Forbes. 



Aug. 21st. After chop went over to Onitschi (town) with 

 Green shields ; he with gun, I with net. At first through 

 fields of grass and yams^ then to town, enclosed in a stockade 

 neatly kept, with fine big trees, coco-palms, undergrowth, 

 and red clay houses. Papilio merope abundant, and caught 

 a pair in copulation, the male with a black-and-white Dia- 

 dema-YikG female. Several species of Terias and Pieris very 

 abundant in outskirts. Shot a pair of the Lagonosticta (eyes 

 olive-brown) in fields, a glossy green Swallow, a Nectarinia, 

 Hyphantomis castaneofuscus (eyes yellow, legs dark livid 

 flesh), and a Sycobius with red head, which frequented the 

 palms, and was in company with a similar, but black-headed 

 bird. Also saw several of the smaller yellow-billed Buceros 

 in trees of town. On return to factory (Mr. Taylor, a Sierra- 

 Leone man, is '' boss ^'), found our "Manati'^ of yesterday 

 was an immense crocodile, about 15 feet long, with nuchal 

 scutes just separated from dorsal, of which there were six, 

 strongly keeled in each series, diminishing to four on tail, 

 with indication of another row on flanks. A male with 

 tracheal loop (? Crocodilus acutus) . Stomach contained fish 

 and stones, some of the latter much rounded. Saved skull, 

 nuchal plate, and trachea. Uode back with Greenshields to 



Abutschi in evening, after "liquoring up''^ with M , the 



agent of the French factory at Onitschi. 



Aug. 22nd. Skinning birds and reloading cartridges nearly 

 all day. In afternoon shot a Hirundo senegalensis in garden, 

 one of several perching on a high tree and hawking insects. 

 Also got a female Ploceine bird (? female of an Euplectes) . 

 Boy brought in one of the common house-lizards, which 

 change colour most remarkably, head and middle third of 

 tail becoming brick-red, basal third and middle of back 

 metallic bluish green when excited, after a long rest entirely 

 dull blackish. The Buceros here is apparently Buceros cylin- 

 dricus or some closely allied form, shy, and not easy to 

 approach. 



Aug. 23rd. Out with Greenshields in morning in planta- 

 tions behind factory. Shot a male Euplectes franciscanus, 

 three Hyphantomis tcxtor (irides red), which had nests in a 



