in Africa. I
conceived at the time that he had made some mistake, and paid no
attention to him until I afterwards twice saw the same traces myself.

BIRDS.

To describe the birds common to these parts requires more time than to
detail the names of the few quadrupeds to be found; indeed in no other
country that I have yet visited do birds so abound. Even the virgin
forests of South America cannot, in my belief, boast of such numerous
feathered denizens; yet I cannot, after all, assert that the number of
genera and species is at all proportionate to that of individual birds.
The contrary is probably the real case.

BEAUTY OF THE BIRDS.

The birds of this country possess in many instances an excessively
beautiful plumage; and he alone who has traversed these wild and romantic
regions, who has beheld a flock of many-coloured parakeets sweeping like
a moving rainbow through the air whilst the rocks and dells resounded
with their playful cries, can form any adequate idea of the scenes that
there burst on the eyes of the wondering naturalist.

The beginning of the month of February, or the end of January, is the
season in which the birds in these parts pair. In the beginning of March
I found many nests with eggs in them; and in the end of that month eggs
nearly hatched were observed in most of the nests, as well as young birds
occasionally.

RAPACIOUS BIRDS.

Of rapacious birds I saw but four kinds, but these are by no means
common:

The first species was a very large bird, of a dark colour (Aquila fucosa,
Cuvier) in size, appearance, and flight closely resembling the golden
eagle which I have often seen, and have once shot on the north-west coast
of Ireland. I have approached these birds closely--so closely indeed that
I have on two occasions shot them, but each time they fell into a thick
mangrove inlet and I was not fortunate enough to procure either of them;
they appeared to me always to frequent the shores, for I never saw them
further inland than a mile from the sea. The large nests Captain King
mentions as having been found upon the coast I imagine must have belonged
to this species.

The second species was a sort of hawk (Haliaeetus leucosternus, Gould)
rather larger than the sparrow-hawk, of a light cinnamon colour, with a
perfectly white head. They also frequent the shores, but I never shot
one.

The third species was a Peregrine falcon (Falco melanogenys, Gould) which
is nearly allied to that of Europe