> Oa ee ee - re. . 
pei oi | pert aan 
> “ee 3 2a opts : 
Gee Rte et ag oF oe 
= ‘ > 1 . ~ oe 
a it ia 
98 A JOURNEY UP THE: RIVER CONGO. 
blue roller-bird snaps up a mantis in spite of its wiohdenn 
assimilation to its leafy surroundings. F arther into the 
forest, the canal, a blind alley of water, stops, the soil 
becomes solid and well raised, and a native path is dis- 
cernible, leading through the now more park-like and 
formal clumps of forest to a distant village, whence the 
crowing of cocks and the occasional shouts of the in- 
habitants can be heard. But the birds do not lessen 
because we are approach- 
ing the abode of men. 
= Out of the bosky trees 
| little troops of black and 
white hornbills suddenly 
start and flap their loose 
irregular flight to another. 
refuge. Violet plantain- 
caters gleam out in their 
beauty - from time to time: 
golden cuckoos, yellow- 
vented bulbuls,* ereen 
fruit pigeons, grey *par- 
rots, parrots that are grey 
and blue and, yellow- 
shouldered, green  love- 
birds, and a multitude of 
little waxbills, a medley 
=== of diverse and beautiful 
Pogonorhyncus ceogaster. birds enliven this walk 
through the forest along 
the black peat path with their loud cries, their lovely 
plumage, and their rapid movements. In the native 
village, which I thus reach, buried in the forest that over- 
awes a stranger with its majesty, there are many indica- 
tions of the ‘neighbouring fauna. These riverine natives 
along the Lower “Congo find it a profitable employment. to 
capture and tame every possible kind of mammal, bird, 
and reptile, which they then bring down to the English 
* Pycnonotus, 
