Okkela in the Lotuka country was a paradise for a natural history collector like Emin. The belt of wood round this settlement was full of treasures. There were many Colobus monkeys, whose white dorsal mane and tail-tuft gleamed through the dark foliage, small families of them being led by white-bearded old males which gazed fearlessly at the stranger. Close by a brown baboon mother might be giving her offspring rough lectures on good manners, which, to judge from the howling, were not much appreciated; “tall, fox-coloured baboons, white on the under side,[103] were chasing one another along the tree-tops, and barking and yelping like hoarse dogs. A small mouse-coloured monkey with a black face, and quite unknown to me, skulked away through the thick bush; two varieties of _Funambulus_ squirrels ran up and down the long tendrils of the creeping plants, and the graceful _Xerus leucumbrinus_ squirrel roved about upon the ground. Small cats, ichneumons, rats, and mice had also found a comfortable shelter in the woods, and other creatures, quite unknown, to judge from the description, are said to haunt it, especially at night.” Birds were even more numerous and striking. “Gorgeous blue kingfishers (_Halcyon senegalensis_ and _H. semicærulea_) and beautiful bee-eaters (_Merops bullockii_ and _M. albicollis_) were perched on the dry boughs waiting for insects; a large gray cuckoo, probably a new variety,[104] could be heard in the tree-tops, as also the handsome _Cuculus capensis_, whose loud cry the Nile Negroes interpret by the word _lashakong_ (my gourd), and a charming little falcon (_Nisus_ sp.) joined them with a sharp chirp, which the natives call _lefit_, a happy imitation of its cry. Snow-white _Terpsiphone_ and brilliant golden cuckoos (_Chalcites cupreus_ and _C. clasii_) were swinging in the green leafy bowers, and cunning barbets (_Pogonorhynchus rolleti_, _P. diadematus_, and _P. abyssinicus_) came into sight for a moment, to disappear again directly like woodpeckers. In the thick copsewood _Bessornis heuglinii_ flew off at my approach with a sudden cry of fear, and _Cichladusa guttata_ sang as loudly, but was not quite so shy. An _Aedon_ warbled its beautiful song among the thickest briars, and was accompanied by the tapping of numerous woodpeckers. I caught _Picus nubicus_, the rarer _P. minutus_, and another kind which I think is new; it closely resembles _P. schoensis_, and it is equally handsome.”