File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17540202643).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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BIRDS OF THE CONGO 291 \ery long feather in the wing, and in one of these species the feather has a bare shaft and racquet-Hke tip, so that in flight at dusk the bird looks as though pursued by two smaller ones, hovering continually a little above and behind. In the posts of the Uele, on moonlight nights in the dry season the large-eyed stone curlews ((Ediaicmus) walk about on the ground uttering at interxals a series of shrill whistles. These calls puzzled us at first, for the streaked brown plumage of the birds made them difficult to see, and they spent the day in quiet spots along the rivers, coming to the stations to feed only at night. We used to watch at twilight for a choc- olate-black hawk (Machoerhamphus) that seldom flies by daylight, but subsists largely on small bats, flying rapidly about in the growing dark- ness, swift as a fal- con. This peculiar hawk although rare in collections, ranges widely over Africa, and we observed it all across the Belgian Congo. The natives often secured good speci- mens, sometimes with their arrows, and brought them to us, to secure in ex- change some coveted gilt tacks, tablets of salt, or other small objects they con- sidered valuable. They procured us even the great cro\\Tied eagle (Spizaetus coronatus), a forest species pre^nng on monkeys. This bird makes an enor- mous nest — under one of which I once spent the better part of three days wait- ing for the bird, pestered by tiny ticks and honeybees. Some of the natives used liirdlime made by boiling a rubber- like sap together with palm oil, a method however which we always discouraged. But it was by trapping that they aided us most effectively. There were many birds in the forest, living on and
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Immature specimen of crown eagle (Spizaetus coronatus) near the ground that were exceedingly difficult to see, and some of these we were hardly al)le to get save through this cooperation. The ^Nledje and Mangbetu tribes make a very good trap. A young tree is trimmed and its stem bent over to serve as a spring; attached to this is a slipknot, which is jerked taut when anything touches a horizontal stick in the middle of the noose. These traps are set in the game paths in the forest or in cultivated fields, and baited with

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