Birds from British East Africa . 509 
114. Irrisor erythrorhynchus. Red - billed Wood- 
Hoopoe. 
Irrisor erythrorhynchus (Lath.). 
Iris brown ; bill red ; feet coral-red. 
The Red-bilied Wood-Hoopoes are not particularly shy 
birds and I was twice able to watch them hunting for cater¬ 
pillars and insects on the trunk and boughs of a large tree. 
They run up and down the stem exactly like a Woodpecker 
does, occasionally head downwards, and every now and then 
give a kind of jump upwards, using the tail as a means 
of support, but not their wings ; possibly this is the reason 
why nearly all those we shot had ragged tails. We used to 
see them in flocks of from six to eight, or less, and when 
leaving a tree they hardly ever all fly off together, but 
generally singly. They are very noisy birds, wliich chatter 
loudly, and are said to possess a very disagreeable smell, 
but I never detected anything the least unpleasant. 
115. Rhinopomastus cabanisi. Cabanis’s Wood-Hoopoe. 
Rhinopomastus cabanisi de Fil. 
Iris brown; bill yellow, tip black; legs black. 
Cabanis’s Wood-Hoopoe was a rare bird and only seen on 
one occasion, when one was shot out of a little flock of four 
which flew out of a tree near the Gerei River; the remaining 
three were very shy and would not let me approach within 
gunshot again; it has an undulating dipping flight like a 
Bee-eater, and the flock that I pursued w ? ere silent. 
116. Cypselus affinis. White-rumped Swift. 
Cypselus affinis Bocage. 
Bill and legs black. 
The White-rumped Swift was found breeding on the 
precipices of Longonot, near Naivasha, in company with 
C. (Equatorialis. Their nests, wdiich. I w r as able to look into 
with my glasses but not to reach, were apparently made 
almost entirely of saliva; at any rate they look distinctly 
semitransparent and as if they were made out of horn; they 
were lined with feathers and I certainly saw eggs in two 
