aoe A 
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NATURAL HISTORY. O57 
(having sét its broken wing), and, although it never grew 
tame, it fed voraciously from the hand the moment it was 
caught. These rollers fly in small flocks, and are much > 
given to mobbing falcons and scapulated crows. 
The scapulated crow, one of the commonest of African 
birds, almost, if not entirely disappears in the cataract 
region of the Congo, and only makes its reappearance at 
and beyond Stanley Pool. Is it because the bird really 
dislikes mountainous regions, or that in this poor country | 
there is too little for it to eat? But this last can hardly 
be the reason. It is a bird of most accommodating 
appetite, and would certainly find a means of living round 
the native villages, especially these near the banks of the 
river, where there is much fish refuse. On the Upper river 
he generally builds his nest in the Hyphene palms, and 
often falls out with a large kite who chooses the same tree 
for his eerie. 
-SPUR-WINGED PLOVER. 
