THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 221 



Within the brooding-chamber, on a soft cushion of sedge and other 

 materials, lie the three, four, or five white eggs on which the 

 female sits; in the middle chamber the male meantime stores up all 

 sorts of provisions, a bountiful supply of fish, frogs, lizards, and 

 other dainties which he has caught, so that his mate can choose from 

 these stores, and has only to reach forward to satisfy her hunger; 

 in the entrance chamber the male stands or sits, whenever he is not 

 busy hunting for food, to keep guard and to cheer his mate with 

 his society, until the growing offspring take up the whole attention 

 of both. 52 



The association of umber -bird and eagle or horned owl is not a 

 solitary instance of friendly companionship on the part of birds 

 belonging to different species and totally unlike in their habits. 

 On the broad, fan-like leaves of the magnificent duleb-palm, which 

 stand out horizontally from the trunk, the nests of the dwarf pere- 

 grine falcon and the guinea-dove often stand so close together that 

 the falcon could easily grasp one of his neighbour's young ones. 

 But he does not touch them, for he is only accustomed to attack 

 birds on the wing, and thus the little doves grow up in safety beside 

 the little falcons, and the parents of both often sit peacefully beside 

 each other, near their respective nests. 53 



Another palm gave me an opportunity of observing birds whose 

 brooding surprised and fascinated me greatly. Round a single tom- 

 palm there flew, with constant cries, small-sized swifts, nearly re- 

 lated to our own swifts, and my attention was thus directed to the 

 tree itself. On close observation I saw that the birds frequently 

 repaired between the leaves, and I then discovered on the grooves 

 of the leaf -stalks light points which I took to be nests. I climbed 

 the tree, bent one of the leaves towards me, and saw that each nest, 

 which was made chiefly of cotton, was plastered firmly in the angle 

 between the stalk and the midrib of the leaf, cemented by salivary 

 secretion, after the method usually followed by swifts. But the 

 hollow of the nest appeared to me so flat that I wondered how the 

 two eggs could remain lying when the leaf was shaken by the wind. 

 And it must have shaken with the slightest breath, not to speak of 

 the storms which often raged here! Carefully I reached out my 



