The Shade of the Virgin Forest 245 
and the dense undergrowth conceal the majority of the species 
from the eye of the observer. The birds most easily discerned 
are the great white and black hornbill, the immense turacus and 
a shrik^, first discovered to us by its sweet song, the only really 
good forest singer. The insect world is very strongly repre¬ 
sented. There is a species of cicada, almost imperceptible to 
the eye of the traveller on account of its protective grey colour, 
which matches the bark of the trees; it is about four centimetres 
in length, and its exceedingly shrill, almost metallic, chirp fills 
the woods with a noise which, as Stanley said, surpasses the 
“ warbling ” of the Manjema women. There are gorgeous diurnal 
butterflies, the West African nymphalidce predominating, which 
flutter in crowds at the brooks and moist places on the way, or 
on the ordure of mammalia, and fly up in clouds in front of the 
caravans. The beetles are less noticeable, but at times goliath- 
beetles are to be found, something like colossal editions of the 
rhinoceros-beetles, which belong to the very largest of their order. 
Little black wasps become a great source of annoyance at times ; 
they build their nests, which look as though they were made of 
coarse grey-brown paper and resemble wind-sails, in the boughs 
of trees. They are often the cause of serious confusion in the 
caravan through their very painful stings. The ants, however, 
play the chief role among the representatives of the lower animal 
world in this forest. The termites, or white ants, erect strange 
structures propped up against the trunks of trees which make one 
think of pileated mushrooms; the house-ants hump the earth 
high up into the tree-tops, where among the boughs they construct 
habitations which bear such a striking resemblance to monkeys 
sitting quietly that we sometimes grasped our rifles and very 
nearly pulled the triggers. Small ants cement up all the gaps in 
the leaves of the underwood with earth and refuse, and fall 
fiercely upon any invader who attempts to cut his way through. 
Then there are reddish-brown ants, about the size of our wood 
ants, which march in thousands along the road in close forma¬ 
tion, a respectful way always being made for them by all who 
cross their path, as they bite fearfully. The most interesting of 
