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LIST OF A COLLECTION OF BIRDS MADE AT GAMBAGA, 



IN THE GOLD COAST HINTERLAND, 



BY CAPT. W. GIFFARD. 



By ERNST HARTERT. 



THIS collection is made near Gamhaga, in the Gold Coast Hinterland, north of 

 Cape Coast Castle, lUi' N. lat., and about V west of Greenwich. A few 

 skins are from Mossi, or as it is now officially spelt " Moshi." This is the country 

 beginninfc about fifty miles N.E. of Gambaga, and such few birds as Captain Giffard 

 shot there were procured within twenty miles of Wagadugu or Waghaduga. A few 

 skins were also secured during the return journey on the Volta River, others at 

 Cape Coast Castle, and others at Prahsu or Praso. 



The collection, although not a very large one, and most of the species being 

 represented in a few specimens only, contains some interesting novelties, which are 

 already briefly characterised in the bulletin of last October's meeting of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club. Still greater, however, is the zoogeographical interest attached 

 to the ornis of Gambaga. The close relationship between the fauna of North-eastern 

 Africa and that northern portion of West Africa which has been called the 

 Senegambian division is now a well-known fact, which I had an opportunity to 

 observe myself in Haussaland, as long ago as ls85 and 1886 (see Journal fur 

 Ornithologie, 1886, p. 576). The exact limits of the great zoogeographical area 

 extending from North-east Africa to Senegambia are, nevertheless, very little known. 

 Reliable facts about the distribution nf birds in Senegambia itself are scarce; nothing 

 is known of the exact northern limits of tropical Senegambia towards the Saharau 

 desert-fauna, next to nothing from within the great bend of the Niger north of the 

 tenth degree, next to nothing from the northern portions of Haussaland, nothing 

 from Bornu, Bagirmi, "Wadai aud Darfur. Every additional fact is therefore welcome 

 to ornithologists and students of African zoogeography. From my own scanty 

 observations, made fourteen years ago, under difficult circumstances, in Haussaland, 

 I am inclined to think that the mountains in Central Haussaland, which separate 

 the waters going to the Benue aud to the Niger south of the tenth degree, from 

 those running to the Lake of Tsad, and to the Upper Niger, or their northern slopes, 

 form a kind of line of demarcation between the tropical West African region and 

 the Senegambian and North-eastern division. Future observations and collections, 

 however, must show how much of these differences is merely due to the prevalence 

 of large forests in the West African region, and their greater scarcity in the more 

 northern portions. As it is, the name of the West African region is not too well 

 chosen, as it extends as far eastwards, about, as the thirtieth to thirtv-fifth degree 

 east of Greenwich, and as it extends to the north only along the west coast in a 

 narrow belt to about the Gambia, where it seems to be limited by the great area 

 reaching from North-east Africa to Senegambia, which might be called the Sub- 

 Saharan area. For this distribution cf. Oedicnemus ajfinis, Ptilopachits fuscus, 

 Cerchneis alopex, Coracias naeriits, C. ahi/ssinicus, Petronia dentata, Mirafra 

 erythropt/gia, Ueliocorys modesta yijf'ardi, and many others in the following list. 



