172 



Wonders of the Bird World 



of nesting indulged in by the Hornbills was only made 

 known in recent years, but it must have been known to 

 the natives in e\-ery country, and I myself had a confirmation 

 of the habit in the narrative of a native gentleman on the 

 West Coast of Africa. My friend, the late Mr, Herbert 

 Ussher, C.M.G., when Governor of the Gold Coast, took 

 great interest in the natural history of the colony over 



which he presided, and in the 

 soil of which he now lies buried. 

 His principal assistant in the 

 collecting of birds was a native, 

 who worked for the British 

 Museum after Governor Ussher's 

 death, until small-pox carried 

 him off This old gentleman — 

 he told me in one of his letters 

 that he was a " gentleman," and 

 that he wished to be addressed 

 in full — " Mr. St. Thomas David 

 Aubinn, Esq., Royal Hunter to 

 the King of Denkera " — was a 

 wonderful collector, and sent me 

 many interesting birds, accom- 

 panied by not less interesting 

 bills. The latter would some- 

 times arrive to the tune of ;£'6o 

 or £yo, when the specimens were not worth more than £6 

 or £y, and on receiving the latter sum he always professed 

 himself deeply grateful. I was so much struck with the 

 commercial intelligence displayed by my correspondent 

 that I considered his overcharges as the result of the 

 development of the negro shrewdness, educated under the 

 protection of the Pax Britaniiica, and I asked him to send 

 me a few particulars of the habits of the birds which he 

 met with in Ashantee (then closed to us, as it was before 



' I bring yon fine thing this morning 

 sah. Rarety from Denl^era." 



