214 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



from the glossy plumage of a metallic starling, now in one direc- 

 tion, now in another, with every movement. Delighted by the won- 

 derful beauty of this bird, one would gladly observe it carefully, 

 and learn something of its life and habits; but one's attention is 

 continually being claimed by new phenomena. For here, too, pic- 

 ture crowds upon picture. Where the metallic starling sat a few 

 moments before, there appears a no less brilliant golden cuckoo, a 

 sun-bird or honey-sucker rivalling the humming-birds in beauty of 

 plumage, a pair of charming bee-eaters, a roller displaying his bril- 

 liant feathers, a halcyon nO less beautiful, a paradise fly-catcher, 

 whose long, drooping, median tail-feathers give the little creature 

 such a surprising splendour, a turaco unfolding his deep purple-red 

 feathers at every stroke of his wings, a shrike whose flaming red 

 breast excels even these wings in brightness, a quaintly -shaped 

 hornbill, a golden weaver-bird, a vidua or "widow-bird", a wood- 

 hoopoe with its metallic brilliance, a dainty woodpecker, a leaf- 

 green dove, a flight of similarly coloured parrots, and many other 

 feathered inhabitants of the forest. This is a specially favoured 

 home of birds, affording food and shelter to many hundreds and 

 thousands of different species, so that one sees them much sooner 

 and much more frequently than any of the other creatures which 

 have their home in the forest. Birds animate every part, from the 

 ground to the tops of the tallest trees, from the most impenetrable 

 bushes to the leafless branches of the baobab. Among the grasses 

 and other plants growing luxuriantly on the ground the well-trodden 

 paths of francolin and perhaps also guinea-fowl twine and inter- 

 twine in every direction; the leafy spaces just above the root-stocks 

 of the bushes are occupied by little doves, the spreading portion of 

 their tops by various beautiful birds, especially sun-birds and finches, 

 while families of colies shoot down, like arrows from a bow, to 

 where the bush-tops are so thickly matted and thoroughly inter- 

 woven that they seem quite impenetrable, and, by creeping and 

 clinging, pushing through every possible gap and opening, succeed 

 in forcing their way into the centre, there to seek for food; wood- 

 hoopoes, titmice, and woodpeckers hang or climb about, examining 

 every crevice in the bark of the trunks which rise just above the 



