184 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
returned to Nairobi, for three days of it made my chest look 
like raw beef and very uncomfortable. My knickers were 
worn to shreds at the knees through walking for miles in long 
grass, and my helmet — an old one — had the cover all worn 
away in patches through pushing through forest scrub. 
I got three males of the somewhat scarce Percival’s Oriole 
(Oriolus percivali), which bird is distinguished from the common 
oriole by a velvety- black shirt front, which looks very handsome 
against its golden plumage. The only other specimens worthy 
of mention were three species of shrikes, all new to the collection 
and as yet unidentified. 
Saw no snakes, but found a yard or so of the cast skin of 
a Python sebce in the dry bed of a stream which flows through 
the forest just back of our tents ; around the waterhole close 
by was the spoor of a leopard amongst the many tracks of 
duikers and forest-haunting buck. I never saw any dangerous 
game during my stay in camp, though last night, when listening 
to the tales of two other campers, it seemed most promising. 
We sat around the fire till near midnight, but with my usual 
misfortune only heard the ribald howling of hyaenas. 
Owing to the three days of rain, there were a number of 
very perfect swallowtails about, amongst which I was able 
to distinguish P. dardanus, phorcas, and jacksoni. If I only 
had all I saw; I should ere this have a noble collection, but the 
creatures are most tantalisingly difficult to catch — also, the 
sun is hot. 
September 25. — On arrival at the Museum this morning, 
someone was awaiting me with what he was pleased to call 
a number of * ant’s eggs ’ that had been dug out of a termite’s 
nest in his garden the previous day. They were in three sizes; 
the largest about 50 mm. long, the next as big as blackbird’s* 
and the smallest; which were shrivelled, about as big as peas. 
They turned out to be snake’s eggs; and I am trying to hatch 
out the large ones, which are probably those of a cobra or mole- 
snake. I opened the middle-sized ones, which were too dried 
to hatch, and they contained very small embryos. 
Shortly after, an old gentleman came in with a tobacco tin 
in his pocket, which he said held a live snake, taken at a dis- 
advantage the previous evening in the act of swallowing a 
