The Shade of the Virgin Forest 245 



and the dense undergrowth conceal the majority of the species 

 from the eye of the observer. The birds most easily discerned 

 are the great white and black hornbill, the immense turacus and 

 a shrike, first discovered to us by its sweet song, the only really 

 good forest singer. The insect world is very strongly repre- 

 sented. There is a species of cicada, almost imperceptible to 

 the eye of the traveller on account of its protective grey colour, 

 which matches the bark of the trees ; it is about four centimetres 

 in length, and its exceedingly shrill, almost metallic, chirp fills 

 the woods with a noise which, as Stanley said, surpasses the 

 "warbling" of the Manjema women. There are gorgeous diurnal 

 butterflies, the West African nymphalidcB predominating, which 

 flutter in crowds at the brooks and moist places on the way, or 

 on the ordure of mammalia, and fly up in clouds in front of the 

 caravans. The beetles are less noticeable, but at times goliath- 

 beetles are to be found, something like colossal editions of the 

 rhinoceros-beetles, which belong to the very largest of their order. 

 Little black wasps become a great source of annoyance at times ; 

 they build their nests, which look as though they were made of 

 coarse grey-brown paper and resemble wind-sails, in the boughs 

 of trees. They are often the cause of serious confusion in the 

 caravan through their very painful stings. The ants, however, 

 play the chief role among the representatives of the lower animal 

 world in this forest. The termites, or white ants, erect strange 

 structures propped up against the trunks of trees which make one 

 think of pileated mushrooms ; the house-ants hump the earth 

 high up into the tree-tops, where among the boughs they construct 

 habitations which bear such a striking resemblance to monkeys 

 sitting quietly that we sometimes grasped our rifles and very 

 nearly pulled the triggers. Small ants cement up all the gaps in 

 the leaves of the underwood with earth and refuse, and fall 

 fiercely upon any invader who attempts to cut his way through. 

 Then there are reddish-brown ants, about the size of our wood 

 ants, which march in thousands along the road in close forma- 

 tion, a respectful way always being made for them by all who 

 cross their path, as they bite fearfully. The most interesting of 



