176 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



black-backed falcon (which I shot with a rifle), and a 

 goshawk of the same species that another collector 

 had got at Buburi. 1 



On that trip to the Giriwa River I secured from 

 the natives a small stone image which was evidently 

 a relic of a prehistoric race. I had noticed this 

 image in one of the villages and was anxious to 

 obtain it to send to Europe as a curio. The natives 

 were reluctant to part with it, but finally yielded to 

 the temptation of an offer of two axes, but after the 

 bargain had been struck and when one of my boys 

 was carrying away the image, the natives seemed to 

 be seized with some regret. To leave them thoroughly 

 satisfied I was obliged to give them some red turkey 

 cloth in addition to the axes. 



The story they told me of the image was this : that 

 a very, very old man, a man of a time so far remote 

 that they could not recollect his name, a solitary man 

 who had no wife and no children, having outlived 

 all his kinsfolk, had brought this image up from the 



1 The so-called falcon is the rare Machaerorhamphus alcinus, 

 with a peculiar compressed bill. It is said to be crepuscular in its 

 habits and to catch, among other prey, bats in the evening. The 

 goshawk is the equally rare Erythrotriorchis doriae, only known 

 from New Guinea. Other rare birds obtained on the Kumasi 

 River are : A quail, Synoicus plumbeus, Salvadori ; a strange 

 cuckoo, Rhampkomantis megarhynchus (or an allied form) ; a new 

 flycatcher, Machaerirhynchus flaviventer novus; a new form of 

 Graucalus, named after Mr. Meek; a new shrike, Pinarolestes 

 and others, which will be fully discussed in a paper in the Nov 

 Zool.ft. II. 



