Birds of Southern Cameroon. 513 



under Astur tonssenellii above, p. 493). In the stomachs of 

 birds shot "while so engaged, I have more than once found 

 driver-ants that had been swallowed incidentally, attached 

 to tlie bodies or their insect prey, for a driver-ant never lets 

 go its hold. Hiis, I believe, furnishes an explanation of the 

 statement made in Mr. Pycraft's ' History of Birds' (p. 406) — 

 authority not given — that Halcyon cyanuleucus subsists on 

 ants. The food of all species of Halcyon, so far as I have 

 observed, is beetles, grasshoppers, cockroaches, small frogs, 

 &c. ;in the stomach of one I found a M'hip-scorpion. These 

 are captured in a manner similar to that in which the more 

 typical Kingfishers catch fishes ; that is, by a swift arrow-like 

 plunge, the heavy bill serving as the arrow-head and trans- 

 fixing or striking the prey. Once, when sitting in a native 

 house, I heard something repeatedly strike the roof of 

 palm-leaf thatch with force, as if a small stone had hit it. 

 1 found that the noise was caused by a Halcyon (I do not 

 know of which species) that Avas darting from a tree near 

 by upon the cockioaches that crawled out on the roof. 



Halcyon badius. 



Sharpe, Hns, 1901, p. G08 ; 1907, p. 429 ; Bates, Ibis, 

 1909, p. 23. 



Of all the species of Halcyon, this is more strictly a 

 bird of the forest than any other, and is naturally the one 

 most often met with in our forest region. It was found 

 also at Assobam. It has a loud note, quite different from 

 the cries made by the other species. 



Nos. 4497 and 4498 were a pair of nestlings said to have 

 been taken from a hole in an earthen ants' nest made in a 

 tree by the big black species that bite, the same kind in 

 wliich the hole of the Ko-nkae was found (see notes on 

 Agapornis pullaria above, p. 49G). The bills are black with 

 retl tips, a white egg-tooth still persisting. The culmen 

 measures only 21 mm., though the birds are large enough 

 to have the wing-quills three-fourths grown. The wings in 

 these birds were seen to be eutaxic. 



Another clutch of two eggs of this species was found 

 and brought to me along with the bird, No. 3941, a male. 



