EVENING LECTURES 
191 
EVENING LECTURES 
By Hon. Secretary 
The first three of the new series of monthly meetings have 
taken place, and appended is a report. 
The first to be given was by the Honorary Secretary, the 
subject being ‘ Some of the Common Birds of Nairobi District.’ 
The lecture was illustrated with about 150 beautifully coloured 
lantern slides. Most of the birds shown were of the smallest 
species, and it must have been with great difficulty that the 
photographs were obtained. 
Warblers, fly-catchers, larks, cuckoos, sun-birds, wood- 
peckers, and nightjars were all shown in natural surroundings, 
usually in attendance at their nests and young. 
Several of the birds shown had, so the lecturer informed 
us, become so tame and used to the camera that in the end 
they would allow the photographer to approach right up to 
them, and, not showing any fear, would allow him to stroke 
them as they brooded over their eggs or young. 
Some interesting habits were referred to by the lecturer, 
and many of the photographs exhibited birds in positions that 
would have been incredible had it not been for the fact that 
the pictures were direct photographs, and not distorted draw- 
ings. 
Amongst the tricks of the bird-photographer explained by 
the lecturer was that of stopping up the mouth of the nest and 
so preventing the parent birds from entering in their usual 
hurry, and so giving time for a picture to be taken. This was 
shown in several instances, including a woodpecker carefully 
withdrawing the obstructing bunch of paper. 
The second lecture was delivered by E. Battiscombe, Esq., 
on * The Commoner Trees of Nairobi.’ The lecturer exhibited 
some thirty-six kinds of trees and shrubs, illustrating the various 
stages in their growth and reproduction. The lecturer also 
mentioned the commercial value or otherwise of each tree 
which came under review, and in this connection it was 
