( 103 ) 



ON THE BIEDS OF CAYENNE. 



By HANS GRAF VON BERLEPSCH. 



ALTHOUGH birds of French Guiana have been known since the days of the 

 great French ornithologist Mathnrin Jacques Brisson, who, in his excellent 

 work Ornithologiu* described about one hundred species of birds from (Cayenne ; 

 and although birds from that country Bince that time till now have been largely 

 and regularly imported to France and other parts of Europe, no complete 

 account of Cayenne birds has ever been published. 



It was, therefore, with much pleasure that I received the invitation of my 

 friend Dr. Ernst Hartert to work out the collection of bird-skins made in Cayenne 

 l)y Mr. George K. Cherrie, from October 1902 to the end of January 1903, which 

 is deposited in Dr. Walter Rothschild's Museum at Tring. 



Mr. George K. Cherrie, well known by his successful expeditions to Costarica 

 and the Orinoco countrj^, and also as an author of many important ornithological 

 papers, arrived at Cayenne on Sejitember 30, 1902, and collected there assiduously 

 during about four months, he having been assisted in this work by Mr. Benjamin 

 T. Gault. The result of this collecting was a gain of thirteen hundred well- 

 prepared bird-skins, which were all sent to me for examination. 



Unfortunately, at the end of January 1903 Mr. Cherrie was. attacked by 

 diarrhoea, and was compelled to leave Cayenne for Georgetown, in British 

 Guiana, where he went to the hospital in order to recover from his illness. He 

 improved rapidly, but did not think it well to return to Cayenne, as at that 

 time things were not favourable for his purposes, there being a great gold 

 excitement in Cayenne, and therefore the living had become very expensive 

 (" owing to the gold excitement the price of canoe travel up the rivers is 

 prohibitive for a luckless bird collector "). 



On the whole he was satisfied with the ornis of Cayenne, and found the 

 country very rich both in species and individuals. He thinks he has never seen 

 such a variety of " Ant-Thrushes," both in individuals and species, as in the 

 neighbourhood of the Appronague lliver. He says, " I realise that I have barely 

 begun the work in French Guiana." 



As a curious fact how far bird-protection has proceeded in British Guiana, 

 the following extract from a letter by Mr. Geo. K. Cherrie to Mr. Hartert might 

 well be made known : 



" I wrote you December 1st that I was forwarding you a shipment on that 

 date, which indeed I thought I had done, as I turned the boxes over to the agents 

 of the French mail steamer, who were to send them as far as Demerara and 

 there trans-ship by the Royal Mail for England. When I wrote yon on 

 January 22nd, after my return from the Appronague, I was still ignorant that my 

 boxes had not been forwarded ! A day or two later I was informed by the 

 steamship agents that my consignment could not be sent via Demerara, as the 

 Royal Mail would not accept bird-skins from that port owing to local laws 

 prohibiting ox])orlation of bird-skins 1 



* iSi.i vols., publisilieil .at I'.ii-is, KCO, 



