90 Dr. R, B. Sharpe o?t Birds 



discovered the ' Mali ' birds eating the scattered combs. 

 One of the little birds was perched on a twig watching us. 

 The specimens skinned had wax and pollen in their stomachs, 

 with bits of insects which may have been bees or ants. 



" During a four days' trip into the forest to the north 

 of this place I saw some interesting birds. I killed a 

 Guinea-fowl of the same kind as that of which I sent 

 two specimens before *. While going through the forest, 

 far from any village, a flock of eight or ten of them flew up 

 from the ground at the side of the path, with a loud whirr, 

 making a sharp cackling noise. They lighted on the lower 

 branches not far off, but were so perfectly hidden that not 

 even Uba, who was with me, could find them. Each time 

 one flew, it went a few rods only, to a higher station in the 

 trees. Finally one was sighted among the leaves and shot. 



" The other day a man brought me in a basket eleven live 

 birds of one species, a kind of Swift. He had caught them 

 all in a hollow tree, where he said that they had nests built 

 of mud f . 



" For the past two months I have been keeping a record 

 of what was in the stomachs of the birds that I have skinned. 

 I give you a little summary of it. [The scientific names 

 in parentheses have been added by me. — R. B. S.] 



" The Weaver-birds' stomachs generally contained seeds 

 and seed-hulls and cassava, except the two or three kinds 

 called ' Ngas,' which had remains of insects. 



"The Sun-birds' stomachs never contained any vegetable 

 substance, unless the little bird of April 16 is a Sun-bird 

 {Anthothreptes tephrolcema) ; it had one large hard seed in 

 its stomach. Two had little spiders almost whole, and the 

 others had fragments of insects. 



"The Bush-Shrikes, called ' Asanze ' (Fiscus mackinnoni) 

 and ' Ekolat ' (Malaconotus gabonetisis), two kinds of 

 'Nko'e-bikotok ' (Laniarius luehderi), and ' Ntyan ' {Dryo- 

 scopvs verreaitxi) never had any vegetable substances in their 

 stomachs. They contained remains of insects of all kinds, 



* [Gruttera plumifera. — R. JB. S.] 

 t [Cheetura cassini. — II. B S.] 



