THE FEATHERED TRIBE. 227 



stranger. Close by, a dark baboon mother was giving her 

 offspring rough lectures on good manners, which, to judge from 

 the howling, were not much appreciated ; tall fox-coloured 

 baboons, white on the under-side, were chasing one another 

 along the tree-tops, and barking and yelping like hoarse dogs. 

 A small mouse-coloured monkey with a black face, and quite 

 unknown to me, skulked away through the thick bush ; two 

 varieties of Funambulus ran up and down the long tendrils 

 of the creeping plants, and the graceful Xerus leucumbrinus 

 roved about upon the ground. Small cats, ichneumons, rats, 

 and mice had also found a comfortable shelter in the wood, 

 and other creatures quite unknown, to judge from the descrip- 

 tion, are said to haunt it, especially at night. 



The feathered tribe was much more numerous and striking. 

 Gorgeous blue kingfishers (Halycon senegalensis and H. semi- 

 ccsrulea) and beautiful bee-eaters (Merops Bullockii and M. 

 alhicollis) were perched on the dry boughs watching for in- 

 sects ; a large grey cuckoo, probably a new variety, could be 

 heard in the tree-tops, as also the handsome Cumins capensis, 

 whose loud cry the Negroes interpret by the word lashakong 

 (my gourd), and a charming little falcon (Nisus sp.) joined 

 them with a sharp chirp, which the natives call lefit, a 

 happy imitation of its cry. Snow-white terpsiphone and 

 brilliant golden cuckoos (Chalcites cupreus and C. Clasii) were 

 swinging in the green leafy bowers, and cunning barbets 

 (Pogonorhgnckus Bolleti, P. diadematus, and P. ahjssinicus) came 

 into sight for a moment, to disappear again directly, like wood- 

 peckers. In the thick copsewood Bessornis Heuglinii flew off 

 at my approach with a sudden cry of fear, and Cichladusa 

 guttata sang as loudly, but was not quite so shy. An Aedon 

 warbled its beautiful song among the thickest briers, and was 

 accompanied by the tapping of numerous woodpeckers. I 

 caught Picus mibims, the rarer P. minutus, and another kind 

 which I think is new ; it closely resembles P. schoensis, and is 

 equally handsome. 



Animal life abounded also in the open country, covered 

 with shrubs, and on the broad clearings and sandy flats. The 

 ground was strewn with the shells of Achatina zebra ; small 

 lizards and snakes of various kinds — among them the rare 



