Birds of Southern Cameroon. 505 



INIelichneustes robustcjs. 



Meligiiomon robustus Bates, Bull. B. O. C. xxv. p. 26 

 (1909). 



The type specimen is the only example I have seen of this 

 new Honey-Guide. But another species has been described 

 by Reichenow (Orn. Monatsb. 1910, p. 160), wliicli seems to 

 I'esemble mine except in colour, and has been made the type 

 of a new genus, Melichneustes, distinguished by the form 

 of the tail, which I pointed out (Bull. B. 0. C. /. c). This 

 last species, M. sommerfeldi, was found in the region of 

 the Dume River, not very far distant, to tlie north-east, 

 from where I have collected. It is remarkable how many 

 new forms of Indicatoridae, rare and retiring forest-birds, 

 West Africa has yielded. 



]\Iy specimen of M. rohastus was shot with bow and arrow. 

 It had in the stomach small flakes of wax, and, like other 

 Honey-Guides, had a very tough skin. 



Lybius bidentatus. [Ekuku.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 610; 1905, p. 406. 



Nos. 4381 and 4382 ( (J & ? ) were a pair caught, with four 

 j^oung, in their hole in the tall dead stump of an aseng tree 

 with dry corky wood. The hole was at about a man's height 

 above the ground. The entrance had been about two inches 

 in diameter (it had been chopped larger when I saw it, to 

 admit the man's hand in removing the birds) ; and the 

 excavation ran down a foot and a half. At the bottom there 

 were a number of decomposing portions of insects which 

 had passed through the bodies of the birds and had an ex- 

 tremely offensive smell. The birds had been stopped up in 

 their hole by a man who saw them both enter, about 8 or 

 9 o'clock in the morning. The food found in the stomachs 

 of the nestlings consisted of insects, part of a large Cetonid 

 beetle being among them. The adults of this species feed 

 mainly on fruits. The eyes of the nestlings were very small. 

 Both these nestlings, and some nearly full-grown young 

 birds obtained at another time, had a heel-pad of sharp- 

 pointed tubercles. 



