Birch of Gambia. 251 



(at angle) and. ring round lower end of thigh orange- vermilion. 

 Sexes apparently alike. The beak, which is very large and strong 

 and looks out of all prop;)ition to the .size of the bird, is horn- 

 coloured; the cere a paler shade of the same colour. I^egs black; 

 iris dark brown. Length 12 inches. 



No. 2. A y lunger Init nearly adult bird noosed on a ground- 

 nut heap. Like No. 1, with a grey head, bu;t the green of the 

 rumj^ and under surface was not quite so bright and there was 

 no sign oT vermili )n on the angle of the wing or thighs. 



No. .'^. A very young but fully feathered bird, with just 

 a few tufts of down showing on back and breast; taken from nest. 

 Tim ^^'ll.olo critwn from forehead lo nape blight l>rick-red (or rather 

 a colour bi'twcen brick-red and pink), with a pale wash of the 

 same colour over the rest of the head, the ground colour of which 

 is hrownish grey as in the adult. This red persists foi- four or 

 five months after the bird leaves the nest, and during the time 

 gradually changes into the grey of the adult, though some signs 

 of it last till the first moult. In other respects the plumage re- 

 sembled that of No. 2. 



In Eochebrune's " Oiseaux de Senegambie " there is a coloured 

 (rather crude) plate of P. fuscicollis (Reichenbach), which exactly 

 represents our adult l»ir(l, but in the descriptions of the species I 

 have seen the forehead and checks of the adult are described as 

 red (certainly not the case in our bird), and there is no mention of 

 the red heads in the young. In the Hand List of Birds of the 

 British Museum two Vwocephali are given, whose range includes 

 Senegambia (1) P. senegalu.'!, the Senegal l^arrcjt, which is very 

 common here and (2) P. ruhricapillus . I have never seen any 

 description of the latter, and wonder whether it is our bird or 

 whetlier perhaps P. ruhricajn'lus may have been named from a yoimg 

 specimen of the Gambian bird. Perhaps some reader may be able 

 to help on this point of diagnosis. These birds, whatever may 

 be their proper scientific name are well-known here as Bambara* 

 Jobo (the Bamlvara Parrot), their Mandingo name, which they owe 

 to the common belief that they come from the East, where (he 

 Bambara people live, and 'because of their strength and size, the 

 Bambaras being a particulaiiy tall and powerful race. 



In the Gambia these Parrots appear to be confined to that 

 part of the country between the inouth of the Vinntang Creek 

 (about 30 miles from the sea), and the McCarthy Island District, 

 some 150 miles up the I'iver, and within these limits are especially 

 common on the South Bank where the country is well-wooded 

 and fringed with a very deep belt of Mangroves. They never 

 seem to wander far away from the j'iver, or its creeks at any 

 time, and even on our boundajiy, thoug'h in most places this is only. 



*The two last a's are short, to be pronounced as in the nanis 

 Barbara. — [E.H.] 



