56 MRULI TO THE CAPITAL OF UNYORO.

Notwithstanding my orders that if the sun came out I intended to march forward, no preparations were made for a start. My people informed me flatly that the grass was too wet and the sun too hot, and that therefore I must wait until the next morning. A beautifully coloured woodpecker hammered upon a tree-trunk, which process he accompanied by an angry twittering, as if he were indignant at his tiresome work.

Trachyphonus margaritatus called to his little mate, and Psvttacus erythacus flew about in pairs, or at most in threes. In the evening we heard the almost deafening chirping of a huge brown grasshopper. ‘The creature is three inches long; it had been attracted by the light, and hopped about the hut. I discovered upon some tall fig-trees, which had suffered much from the ravages of an elephant-beetle, a parasitic lichen, apparently very much like Schweinfurth’s Platyceriwm elephantotis. Its squarish leaves, measuring about fourteen inches, were dark green, fleshy, and profusely veined ; the surface had a few woolly hairs; the under side was covered thickly with brownish wool. Hach leaf had one side cut straight, the other sides being convex. ‘The leaves hung like gigantic ear-lobes upon the trunk of the tree which nourished the plant.

All the trees were literally covered with the nests of astrilda, in which [I found both eggs and young. A lower nest contained the mother (at night) and her eggs. Above this there was a small nest for the father. I met with representatives of Sporothlastes fasciatus, Spermestes cucullatus, Ortygospiza atricollis, and several Habropyga. I did not see such large Lagonosticta as those in Uganda, and only a few scattered specimens of Uraginthus phenicotis.

The chimpanzee is not uncommon in the southern districts of Unyoro. It inhabits the woods as far north as Kiréto and Masindi, whereas in Uganda it remains much farther to the south, and, so far as I know, it is not seen farther north than Uddu. It is called it Uny6éro kinyabéntu (manlike), and in Uganda mazthi. This, in connexion with Schweinfurth’s reports from the Nyam-Nyam districts, shows that its northern boundary is dependent upon the nature of the vegetation. People here say that it has nests in the trees, and as it chooses the highest trees to build in, it is very difficult to