June, 2000 
29 
full of bumps and hollows, overhangs 
and tunnels, caves and hiding places. 
A multitude of colourful plants and 
animals live on the reef and in its caves 
and hollows Reef-building corals help to 
create a wonderful world under the sea 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
Illustrations from Rainbow magazine 
November & December 1989 by Nani 
Croze and Arabron Osanya-Nyyneque. 
Coral polyp beginning to build, 
drawing by Nani Croze, based on a 
photo by Robert Sisson in National 
Geographic magazine. 
An earlier version of this senes of 
articles first appeared in Rainbow 
magazine 
REFERENCES 
Brusca, R.C & G.J. Brusca. 1990. 
Invertebrates, Sinauer Associates. 
Inc. USA. 
Buchsbaum, R., 1948, Animals 
without Backbones. Penguin 
Books. 
Richmond. M.D. (ed). 1997. A Guide 
to the Seashores of Eastern Africa, 
Sida/ Department for Research 
Cooperation. SAREC. 
Sisson. Robert F.. 1973. Life Cycle 
of a Coral, in National Geographic 
143(6). 
Zim. H.S. & L. Ingle. 1955. 
Seashores, Golden Press. New York 
Short communications 
IT’S GETTING DARK AND WE’VE NOWHERE TO SLEEP 
Marlene Reid 
Fort Jesus Museum 
P.O. Box 82412. Mombasa. Kenya 
Bronze Manikin Lonchura cucullata 
Kenyan "a common species" accord- 
ing to the Bird Atlas of Kenya (Lewis 
& Pomeroy), so common in fact that 
we often pay no attention to it and 
hardly ever see anything w ritten to cel- 
ebrate its existence A dismissive 
“LBJ" (“little brown job" for those 
who don't already know) to most peo- 
ple. In Dar es Salaam they used to build 
nests in my bathroom louvres and I 
paid little attention to them, but since 
moving to Tudor. Mombasa. I have 
been compelled to take much more 
