224 Canon Tristram on a Collection 



their silky webs, and found also many of tliem on the leaves. 

 No doubt this colony was the attraction that caused the con- 

 course of Cuckoos. 



What I have stated renders it quite clear: — (1) That the 

 Cuckoo, in exceptional circumstances, incubates and hatches 

 one or more of its own eggs, which, in these cases, it appa- 

 rently lays together in a safe place on the ground without 

 preparing any nest, (2) That the eggs of the same Cuckoo 

 may be very different in colour and markings. If this be 

 so, the purely theoretical idea held in certain quarters that 

 each hen Cuckoo lays eggs of the same colour and markings 

 or of '' one peculiar type," which are destined to be laid in 

 the nests of one particular species of small bird, and are nearly 

 the same colour as those of the foster-mother, and that she only 

 lays them in the nests of this species, falls to the ground. 



XIX, — Note on a small Collection of Birds from Kikombo, 

 Central Africa. By IT. B. Tristram, U.D., F.R.S. 



I HAVE recently received from my friend Dr. S. T. Pruen, of 

 the Church Missionary Society, a small collection of well-pre- 

 served birdskins, made by him between the middle of April 

 and the end of June in last year (1888). Kikombo is in the 

 region of Ugogo, not far from Mpapwa, and situated at a 

 height of 4000 feet on the western slope of the great Central- 

 African range. Dr. Pruen states in his letter that all the 

 bii'ds he sends may be looked on as residents, being collected 

 in the dry season, when the migrants are absent ; and he 

 hopes soon to send a much larger and more general collec- 

 tion. Unfortunately he is not likely at present to be able to 

 fulfil his promise, for very soon after despatching the parcel, 

 the missionaries were warned by H.B.M. Consul to escape 

 with all speed to the coast. Dr. and Mrs. Pruen reached 

 Zanzibar in safety, along with the other English missionaries, 

 after being in the most imminent peril from the Arabs, 

 while the Germans, who left at the same time, have not since 

 been heard of, and were doubtless murdered on the road. 

 The collection contains examples of thirty-two species, none 



