ZOOLOGY 
335 
The only recorded representative of the Goatsuckers is the remarkable 
Cosmetornis vexillarius which has the ninth pinion of the wing prolonged into a 
narrow white plume of great length. The sixth, seventh and eighth pinion 
feathers which are black are also lengthened beyond what is usual. The female 
is without these appendages. 
VVe are actually privileged to possess two out of three species of African 
Trogon— Hapaloderma narina and H. vittatum. Both these birds are very 
rarely met with and up to the present have only been recorded from the Shire 
Highlands. Their plumage is a combination of blue-green, golden-green, and 
bronze, with crimson-scarlet stomach, a purple tail with white edges, and zebra 
marks of black and white on the wing. 
We now come to the consideration of a group that amongst all the 
puzzling affinities of the heterogeneous cohorts of Picarian birds stands out as 
a distinct assemblage closely inter-related—the SyndaMyla, which includes the 
bee-eaters, hoopoes, hornbills, kingfishers, and rollers, besides other families 
not represented in Africa. 1 They are well represented in British Central 
Africa. Notable amongst the bee-eaters is the lovely 
Merops natalensis , which is abundant on the river 
Shire and probably in other low-lying parts of 
British Central Africa. At Chiromo this bird is 
present in large numbers as it nests in holes in the 
high clay bank on the spot which divides the River 
Ruo from the Shire. When I arrived at Chiromo in 
1891 to commence the administration of this country 
I found that these beautiful birds were being shot 
down in numbers to be skinned and sent home for 
the decoration of hats. I took them under Govern¬ 
ment protection, however, and since that time their 
numbers have greatly increased and they have become 
wonderfully tame. It is objected, however, to this 
favour shown to them that, burrowing into the bank 
to make holes for the reception of their eggs, they 
assist the water in flood time to eat away the clay 
and so gradually diminish the site of Chiromo. I do 
not think there is any fear that the bee-eaters may 
cause more than the loss of a few feet of clay cliffs, 
and the ground they are thus destroying is a piece of Government land, which 
is retained as a kind of a park. When these bee-eaters settle on the branches 
of a bare leafless bush, which they are very fond of doing, the first impression 
on the passing traveller is that this shrub is covered with gorgeous blue and 
crimson flowers, till, when he is advancing to gather them, the flowers change 
into birds which fly away and leave the bareness of the bush singularly apparent. 
They are almost the most gorgeously coloured of any living bird. The pre¬ 
dominating colour is rose-red, deepening in places into scarlet; the other tints 
of their silky plumage are azure-blue, verditer-blue and black. 
The Hoopoes are represented by one species and the Tree-hoopoes by two. 
The most remarkable form of Hornbill is the very large ground hornbill, a 
1 I give here a drawing of the foot of the great kingfisher (Ceryle maxima ) to show its syndactylous 
character. It will be seen that the third and fourth toes are nearly joined together. This I think arose 
from the Syndactylous picarians originating from a Zygodactylous ancestor (toes placed two and two) and 
afterwards directing one of the back toes forward. 
(foot of the great kingfisher) 
