12 Mr. Gr. L. Bates— Field-Notes on the 
Besides the refuse picked up around villages, the Kites 
eat palm-nuts and catch wild mice and young chickens. 
When I had a couple of monkeys' skulls drying on the 
roof of my kitchen I had to tie them to a heavy log to 
prevent them from being carried off by the Kites. 
On my homeward voyage, both in the Kamerun River 
and at Dakar, Kites were seen following in the wake of the 
steamer and catching up bits of refuse from the water, just 
like the Gulls. 
501. Pern is apivorus. 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1905, p. 465. 
a. $ a d. Bitye, March 7, 1907. Under parts almost 
white. Stomach containing large insects, including some 
larvfe that looked like very large maggots, which my hunter 
found the bird digging out of a rotten log over a stream. 
b. $ . Bitye, Feb. 20, 1908. Abundant dark spots 
and bands beneath. This bird had some small ova in the 
ovary. Does it reach its breeding-place early in the spring ? 
531. S COTOP ELI A BOUVIERI. 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1904, p. 603. 
g . Bitye, Dec. 30, 1907. 
The stomach contained many bones of small fishes and 
some bits of prawns. 
552. Syrnium nuchale. [Akung.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1907, p. 427. 
When I skinned my specimen I was struck with the 
difference in size between the ear-openings on the two sides 
of the head. On measuring these, I found the lengths of 
the elliptical slits in the skin that form the entrance to the 
ear-cavities to be as follows :—right ear 20 mm., left 14*5 mm. 
In all specimens seen since then the same difference has been 
found, though not always to so great an extent. In one the 
ear-openings measured : right 19, left 13 mm.; in another, 
right 19, left 14*5 mm.; in another, right 17, left 14 mm. 
All of these happen to have been male birds. In the size of 
the ear-cavities in the skulls no difference was observed. 
