61 
Birds of Southern Kamerun. 
descending scale, repeated, in a fine, sweet voice, with great 
rapidity, over and over again, for almost as long as a man 
will stand and listen, without a pause for breath. It is a 
performance that arrests the attention. It seems to have 
impressed the mind of the African Thrush also, for these 
notes have been heard to mingle in the Thrush's song. 
1833 a. Anthothreptes hypodila. [Zesol.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 340. 
1835. Anthothreptes tephrol,ema. [Zesol.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 340. 
These two species are easy enough to distinguish from 
each other when in the hand—the males at least. Yet in my 
notes they are not always distinguished, and so I speak of 
them together. Both are found in every place where I have 
collected long. They live among the bushes and smaller 
trees of the open cleared land, not in the forest. Their food 
is more varied than that of most Sunbirds. They often eat 
small fruits; and a certain kind of hard seed as large as a 
small pea is sometimes swallowed whole, almost filling* 
the little stomach. Among the insects most frequently 
found in stomachs are small moth-larvae and spiders. In 
the stomach of one bird ( A . hypodila) were four or five 
minute snail-shells. 
Besides many nests of small Sunbirds found and not 
identified was one which, from the well-grown nestling in 
it, was seen to belong to one of these two species. It was 
hanging from a slender bough, and was composed of fine 
libres ; it was decorated outside with whitish bits of dry 
leaves and lichen, and abundantly lined with very soft white 
plant-down. 
1840. Chalcomitra obscura. [Zesol.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 338. 
This is probably the most common species of Sunbird here, 
considering that it is found not only in the bushes about 
villages where most of the Sunbirds are common, but also 
in the forest. Its little song has been already described 
