56 MRULI TO THE CAPITAL OF UNYORO. 



Notwithstanding my orders that if the sun came out I in- 

 tended to march forward, no preparations were made for a 

 start. My people informed me flatly that the grass was too 

 wet and the sun too hot, and that therefore I must wait until 

 the next morning. A beautifully coloured woodpecker ham- 

 mered upon a tree-trunk, which process he accompanied by an 

 angry twittering, as if he were indignant at his tiresome work. 

 Tr achy pi tonus margaritatus called to his little mate, and Psit- 

 tacus erythacus flew about in pairs, or at most in threes. In 

 the evening we heard the almost deafening chirping of a huge 

 brown grasshopper. The creature is three inches long ; it had 

 been attracted by the light, and hopped about the hut. I 

 discovered upon some tall fig-trees, which had suffered much 

 from the ravages of an elephant-beetle, a parasitic lichen, 

 apparently very much like Schweinfurth's Platy cerium elephan- 

 totis. Its squarish leaves, measuring about fourteen inches, were 

 dark green, fleshy, and profusely veined ; the surface had a few 

 woolly hairs ; the under side was covered thickly with brownish 

 wool. Each leaf had one side cut straight, the other sides 

 being convex. The leaves hung like gigantic ear-lobes upon 

 the trunk of the tree which nourished the plant. 



All the trees were literally covered with the nests of astrilda, 

 in which I found both eggs and young. A lower nest con- 

 tained the mother (at night) and her eggs. Above this there 

 was a small nest for the father. I met with representatives of 

 Sjporothlastes fasciatus, Spermcstcs cucullatus, Ortygospiza atri- 

 collis, and several Habropyga. I did not see such large 

 Lagonosticta as those in Uganda, and only a few scattered 

 specimens of Urccginthus phcenicotis. 



The chimpanzee is not uncommon in the southern districts 

 of Unyoro. It inhabits the woods as far north as Kiroto and 

 Masindi, whereas in Uganda it remains much farther to the 

 south, and, so far as I know, it is not seen farther north than 

 Uddu. It is called it Unyoro kinyab&ntu (manlike), and in 

 Uganda maziJri. This, in connexion with Schweinfurth's 

 reports from the Nyam-Nyam districts, shows that its northern 

 boundary is dependent upon the nature of the vegetation. 

 People here say that it has nests in the trees, and as it 

 chooses the highest trees to build in, it is very difficult to 



