XXXvi ITINERARY. 



its presence was proclaimed by its rasping cry of " Ki-ri-ri," or poised 

 hovering in the air, not far up, searching for its prey, mostly small 

 lizards. 



Flii-hts of the smaller macaws and of parakeets — now and then the 

 brilliant orange and yellow Kissi-kissi {Aratinga solstitiaHs) — frequently 

 dashed out of some clumps of trees, chattering shrilly as they made for 

 some other clump. White- throated swallows were more numerous by 

 the streams, flying restlessly over the water. There were at times a 

 few tyrant-shrikes, mostly either the solitary fly-catcher {Tyrannns 

 sccti'cipa) perching alone and darting out and circling in the air after 

 some insect, to return again to its perch, or the fork-tailed tyrant 

 (Muscivora tt/rannus), with its peculiarly elongated tail-feathers blown 

 aside, flying awkwardly to some perch, or sitting unafraid in some 

 very conspicuous position. At intervals there would be a sight of a 

 few old witches or Ani cuckoos flitting about the bushes, but never 

 many of them together. The savannah-starlings or meadow-larks 

 (Siiu'nella) occasionally fluttered before us, but at safe distances, though 

 we were not troubling ourselves about them ; and in the curatella 

 bushes the grey mocking-thrush (Mimiis) would now and then be 

 noticed in short flights in the open branches. A yellow warbler or 

 summer-bird (Detidroeca) or some other bright species, mostly of the 

 tanagers, such as Calliste and others, would be seen in* the trees and 

 bushes by the streams, as they flew from branch to branch or across 

 the water. But more common than all, the little hvowmiih. Anthus 

 would rise from the grass, generally with a little cry, and drop again a 

 little ahead or by the side. Frequently one heard the cooing of the 

 pigeons and wood-doves, and at times the little grey ground-doves 

 would flit from beside the track. But there was never any abundance 

 either of species or individuals, such as is so noteworthy on the coast 

 savannahs as a rule. 



It would be far from correct, however, to convey the impression that 

 the avifauna is scanty on these elevated savannah districts, which may 

 be regarded broadly as being at a general level of some 3500 feet 

 above the sea. This is far from being the case, since neaily all the 

 great gi-oups found in the colony are represented by many forms, the 

 Passerine birds being not only abundant in all the families, but of 

 many of them, such as the bush-shrikes and ant-thrushes, the tree- 

 creepers, the tyrant-shrikes, the wrens, thrushes, greenlets, tanagers, 

 finches, sugar-birds, etc., there are many which are confined to the 

 district, or at any rate have not so far been obtained elsewhei'e; though, 

 indeed, this is hardly of special importance, since so little has been 

 accomplished of detailed exploration in neighbouring localities that 

 our knowledge of the distribution of the species is liteially of the 

 slightest. Again, while of the non-Passerine birds there are surprising 

 absences of some of the group.s — none of the Gruiformes, Ardeiformes, 

 or Kingfishers, for instance, being met with, — and others, such as the 

 Charadriiformes, the ducks, and the woodpeckers, are surjirisingly few, 

 there is an unexpected abundance of forms of other groups, such as 

 the humming-birds (of which some 24 species occur), the hawks, 

 ]iigeons, parrots, and goatsuckers, though in each one is struck by the 

 presence or absence of individual species. 



