from Efulen in Cameroon. 89 



together with the following notes which I extract from his 

 correspondence : — 



"I felt sorry that the extracts from my letter were 

 printed before you saw the specimens, which would have 

 helped you identify the birds referred to ; I regret that the 

 corrections and additions given in my second letter could 

 not be used. Please let me ask you to look again at the 

 three birds which you have called Hyphantornis cucullatus. 

 I certainly believed that there were two species among them, 

 but my record is not very clear. I thought that the second 

 and third were the common Weaver-bird of this district, 

 which builds in colonies round the villages and fills the 

 palm-trees and bananas with nests of the size of cocoa-nuts, 

 having short downward-opening entrances ; and that the first 

 (May 27th, ' Ngas ') was a different bird, which the people 

 tell me is the builder of the remarkable nests found in the 

 forest rather than around villages, with a tubular entrance 

 almost as long as one's arm *. 



" I am anxious to hear what you find among the birds 

 received later. Since sending the last I have collected a good 

 many specimens and am still finding new kinds. With the 

 help of a book which I have, I can identify a good many of 

 them — so far as the family goes, at least. Among the most 

 interesting that I have obtained lately are some little birds 

 of two kinds (judging from the size) that I take to be 

 species of Indicator or ' Honey-Guide/ called by the Bulus 

 1 Mali ' f. They were all caught during the first four days 

 of this month, in snares set by the schoolboys at the mission 

 at one spot in a plantation-clearing not far off. A tree had 

 just been felled that had a bees' hole in a dead part near 

 the top. The bees' combs were full of ' bee-bread 3 and 

 larvae, but I did not see any honey. When I went to look 

 on, the bees themselves were still there, clinging in a cluster 

 to a limb over their ruined store. The boys had taken the 

 combs and put them on the ground under snares like those 

 described in my former letter ('Ibis/ 1902, p. 90), having 



* [This is Malimbus rachelice.—H. B. S.] 



+ [The Honey-Guides are Indicator conirostris and I. exilis. — R. B. S.] 



