4 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History [Vol. LIIT 
river, when washed, distinctly show particles of the carapace and 
abdominal segments of smaller forms of shrimps. Sometimes, too, the 
larger ones (Paleemonide) are eaten, as is evident from remains at its 
feeding places, most of the harder parts being rejected. Its general diet 
includes river-crabs (Potamonide), small fishes, and aquatic insects. 
“Both of the African otters, Lutra maculicollis Lichtenstein and 
Aonyx capensis (Schinz), make crustaceans an important part of their 
diet. Shrimps, of course, are eaten in only small quantities, except 
during the dry season when in the savannah many of the rivers dry out 
and such creatures are left stranded. 
“The water mongoose of the Ituri Rain Forest, Atilax macrodon J. A. 
Allen, and its northern relative, Atzlax robustus Gray, from the Uele and 
White Nile region feed on shrimps, as is shown by stomach contents. 
They generally go to swampy areas for all sorts of prey, even hemipterous 
insects commonly found in puddles on the road. The typical tracks of 
their feet, with the entirely free, unwebbed digits, give irrefutable proof 
OL thelr identity... (He li.) | 
“The fresh-water shrimps of the Congo do not form a very large 
item in the food of birds. Looking through our rather extensive notes on 
stomach-examinations of the birds we collected, I find only seven species 
which had eaten shrimps or nearly allied crustacea which we listed under 
the same term. In only two cases did it seem as though such crustacea 
would form a fair percentage of the birds’ food. One of these was the 
common, small river-cormorant, the other the malachite kingfisher. 
The relative importance of this component of the diet will be taken up 
under the respective species. | 
“The small cormorant of the rivers of tropical Africa, Phalacrocorax 
africanus (Gmelin), is stated by most authorities to feed mainly upon 
fish, and it will also take insects (grasshoppers, for example), frogs, and 
mollusca.! In the stomachs of two individuals, one from Stanley Falls, 
the other from Faradje, I found numbers of small shrimps: twelve in 
one case and an even greater quantity in the other. <A few fish-bones 
were also present in one of them. I think it likely, if I had been able to 
examine more of the cormorants, that the shrimps would have proved a 
relatively important food. | 
‘Among fourteen species of herons and bitterns I am surprised to 
find that only two, both egrets, had taken any crustaceans other than 
crabs. Of the little egret, Eigretta garzetta (Linnezus), the only stomach 
‘Heuglin, ciNe ‘Ornithologie Mopaents Afrika’s,’ p. 1495; Stark and Sclater, 1906, ‘Birds of South 
Africa,’ IV, p. 
