630 Mr. G. L. Bates ow Ihe 



belonging to the genus PhyJlostrophus — more so even, in 

 some of them, than in the specimen of Pycnonohis gabonensis 

 figured (text-fig. 21_, p. G29). In all species of Andropadus 

 and particularly in A. virens, the lateral branches were 

 found to be weak, consisting of a few small semiplumes 

 only. The following is a list of the species in which the end 

 of the spiual tract was found to be branched; generally more 

 than one specimen of a species was examined : — Criniger 

 chloronotus, C. calurus, Bleda synductyla, B. tricolor, Phyllo- 

 strophus simplex, P, fiavigula, P. falkensteini, P. leuco- 

 pleurus, Andropadus indicator, A. damans, A. gracHirostris, 

 A. gracilis, A. virens, A. latirostris, Pycnonotus gabonensis, 

 Ixo7iotus guttatus. 



No adult bird of the Family Pycnonotidte was found to be 

 entirely without these transverse branches at the end of the 

 spiual tract; and no bird of any other family was found to 

 have them. It should be added that they were not usually 

 apparent in nestlings. 



II. Do the Birds of Southern Cameroon eat Butterflies ? 



The question in regard to birds feeding on butterflies is 

 of interest to ornithologists as well as to entomologists. 

 I believe that the birds of the West African forest do not 

 feed to any great extent on butterflies. This belief is not 

 based merely on the fact that I have not seen them do so, 

 for such merely negative evidence is of little value. It is 

 based on the fact that the stomachs of a large number of 

 birds examined were without any remains of butterflies 

 that were identified as such. During half a dozen years in 

 which I kept records of a considerable proportion of all 

 birds skinned, not only as to whether fruits, or seeds, or 

 insects were found in the stomachs, but also the kinds of 

 insects found when these could be easily made out, I never 

 recorded a single instance of finding a butterfly or part of 

 one ; and during several months, when my attention was 

 particularly directed to that matter, I recorded in the cases 

 of 178 insect-eating birds, the stomachs of which were 

 examined, that nothing looking like remains of butterflies 



