from the Camaroon Country. 439 
of a Cossypha cyanocampter. Several snares had been placed 
near together at that place; and in another, a foot or two 
away, was found the dead body of a Cossypha with the head 
torn off, though the bill was left hanging. As these snares 
catch the birds by their feet and seldom kill them, the 
Centropus probably found the little bird alive, and devoured 
it, when it got caught itself.—G. L. B.] 
130. CENTROPUS MONACHUS. 
Centropus monachus Ripp.; Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 615. 
No. 943. Gad. Efulen, July 21, 19035. 
No. 1050. ¢ ad. 53 Age 9 Ob: 
No. 1874. Gad. River Ja, Jan. 30, 1906. ‘Testes 
rather small. 
No. 1519. Sad. River Ja, March 8, 1906. ‘Testes 
rather large. 
[This is the commonest large bird of the old clearings 
in the neighbourhood of the villages wherever I have been. 
Its doleful call is one of the first bird-sounds noticed by 
newcomers to West Africa. The natives have strange super- 
stitious notions about it. One thing that the Bulu people 
say may have a foundation in fact, namely, that the ‘ Du’u,” 
as they call this bird, kills snakes and carries the heads to 
its nest. I have seen a nest of this bird, but it, at least, 
had no parts of dead snakes about it. It was in a small 
tree, from which hung a thick tangle of vines, not far 
from the village; it consisted of a mass of dry leaves 
loosely piled in a fork of the branches. There were three 
white eggs in it, blunt at the ends, measuring 37 x 28 mm. 
The food of the “ Du’u” is insects, mainly grasshoppers, 
as well as larger prey. One that was killed had in its stomach 
the remains of a wild mouse. I caught another in the act 
of tearing open a retort-shaped nest of Heterhyphantes 
nigricolis hanging in a bush. It flew to a limb near by, 
where it sat wiping its bill. One nestling was found in the 
nest when I went to look; the bird had probably eaten 
the other.—G. L. B.] 
