Birds of Southern Cameroon. 
515 
Alcedo guentheri. 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 607; 1907, p. 4:29. 
Five young birds of this species, with most of the plumage 
still in the sheaths, giving them the appearance of being 
covered with porcupine quills, were brought to me alive in 
December. The boy who brought them said he had 
dug them out of a hole in the side of a pit on the bank of a 
small river near Bitye. While they remained alive for a few 
hours in a box, one of them continually made a most curious 
noise, something between a rattle and a fizzle, rhythmically 
varied in loudness by the opening and closing of the bill. 
Only one bird did this, and always the same one, while the 
rest remained silent. When that one was removed, another 
after some minutes took up the role of “ soda-water bottle >} ; 
and when that one was removed, another commenced. There 
was always one “ fizzler” only. 
The large number, five, of nestlings is noteworthy as being 
unusual in this country. The wings of these young birds 
were found to be eutaxic. 
This species was also found at Assobam. 
Caprimulgus batesi. [Mvomvot.] (Plate IX. fig. 10, egg.) 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p. 432; Bates, Ibis, 1909, p. 25. 
All the birds obtained in breeding condition and the eggs 
found, both before and since my former note on this species, 
were taken in one or the other of the two dry seasons, 
and most were in March, at the end of the driest time of 
the year. 
A young bird not completely feathered was brought to me 
in April. The abdomen was covered with long bull down, 
and there was some similar down on the legs. The 
pectination of the middle claw was not well developed, there 
being only a wide margin, with a few shallow notches, on 
part of the length of the claw. 
The egg figured here is the one that was brought in with 
No. 2937, the specimen from which the figure of the bird 
was drawn (cf. ‘ Ibis/ 1909, p. 25, pi. i.). 
