^ Fauna : Birds 



its habits, and is stated by Mr. R. P. Currie to kill and eat 

 snakes. 



Amono- the Picarian and Passerine birds of Liberia may 

 be singled out for notice the following. This country is rich 

 in examples of that beautiful family peculiar to Africa in its 

 distribution at the present day — the plantain-eaters or turacos 

 {Musophagida'). This group may be another instance of 

 Eocene communication between Africa and South America. In 

 the present age it is limited to the African continent, but in 

 the Miocene period one or more forms strayed northwards as 

 far as France. 



The Musophagidce are related to the cuckoos, which are a 

 world-wide group ; but they seem also to be connected with 

 that extraordinary South American form, Opisthocomus^ the other 

 affinities of which are with the rails, and possibly the gallinaceous 

 birds. In many ways Opisthocomus (which in outward appearance 

 somewhat resembles the turacos) is a primitive or generalised 

 type of bird, which exhibits still in its young a certain degree 

 of quadrupedal locomotion — that is to say, the young scramble 

 about " on all four legs," using the wings with their clawed 

 thumbs to scramble over branches. To the present writer it 

 has seemed, in studying examples of young nestling turacos 

 in Africa, that they also were inclined to move about, resting 

 the finger-tips of the wings on the ground ; but as his 

 impressions were only derived from the possibly exceptional 

 attitudes of three or four examples, it is a point which requires 

 more confirmation before it can be asserted. 



The Turacos in their breeding habits — like the finfoot 

 already alluded to — are very little known indeed, although they 

 are such striking birds in their coloration, and so bold in their 

 habits that they are amongst the first to attract the attention 

 of even the most heedless travellers. One or two species have, 



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