9 
Birds of Southern Kamerun. 
This Egret was never met with at Efulen, and was observed 
only occasionally at the Ja, and then apparently in transit. 
It was seen only in the months of May and November, flying 
about the village or alighting in the street, in the manner of 
the Wading Birds mentioned above. One individual was shot 
on the roof of a native hut. I think that there must be a 
migration of these birds, perhaps only a part of them, from 
the great plains of the Haussa States in Northern Nigeria, 
where Hartert found them so plentiful, when the drought 
sets in there in autumn. They must go to some open country 
to the south, such as the lower Congo or Angola, passing over 
the forest-country between, and returning north in May. In 
passing over this country, so thickly covered with trees, 
these birds of the open plains are attracted by the bare 
ground in the villages. 
337. Turtur semitorquatus. [Zum.] 
Streptopelia torquata Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p. 419. 
The “ Zum ” has two different calls, which are interpreted 
by the natives as a conversation, in a tone of mutual fault¬ 
finding, between a man and his wife. The woman says, “ The 
season is here, and no clearing made yet ” (for planting); 
the man says, “ And not a pot on cooking.” These sentences 
in Bulu, spoken with the proper intonations, resemble two 
calls—a longer and a shorter one—-made by this Dove. But 
I do not think that they are those of the male and the female, 
but both, probably, of the male. When I hear one call, 
apparently answered by another bird at a little distance, 
the second has the same call as that of the first, and it is 
not really an answer, but, rather, an imitation by another 
male, which takes up the tune as it were, while the female 
is probably close by and silent. In Mr. J. C. McLean's 
very interesting notes on the birds of New Zealand ( f Ibis/ 
1907, p. 535) he tells about the two different songs of the 
Tui ” bird in different localities. One song he first heard 
in the bush towards the end of September, and it was “ all 
the rage” on Oct. 14, while in the open country another 
song was “ the fashion.” He suggests possible reasons 
