THE LAST JOURNAL OF W. A. FORBES. 455 



Neophron pileatus (very tame), a large Buceros with high casque, Psittacus 

 erithacus, a greyish-blue Campephaga, a steely-blue Progne with white 

 throat, a Butorides with orange legs, dark cap, and pale chestnut gular 

 streak, Ceryle rudis ?, a beautiful small blue Alcedo with black bill, orange 

 legs and underside, and white ear- spot, the Centropus, &c. Got a lot of 

 orchids and a Platycerium, amongst which was a caterpillar (? Noclua) 

 with large black yellow-bordered ocelli on sides of fourth segment. A 

 fine grey Hawk -Eagle at factory, with black-and-white barred tail, 

 elongated nuchal crest, yellow bill and feet, and pale greyish-yellow eyes. 

 Also saw on banks a small chocolate Dove, with red beak and slaty-blue 

 cap. 



Aug. 21st. After chop went over to Onitschi (town) with Green- Ibis, 1883, 

 shields ; he with gun, I with net. At first through fields of grass and p ' 

 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 Diadema-like 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, Hypfiantornis castaneo- 

 fuscus (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, diminish- 

 ing 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. Rode 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 perch- 

 ing 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 cylindricus or some closely allied form, 

 shy, and not easy to approach. 



Aug. 23rd. Out with Greenshields in morning in plantations behind 

 factory. Shot a male Euplectes franciscanus, three Hyphantornis textor ibis, 1883, 

 (irides red), which had nests in a colony on a small tree over some water . 1 J - ^' 



