On the Ornithology of the Gambia River. 481 



XXXV. — On the Ornithology of the Gambia River. 

 By John S. Budgett, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. 



In visiting the Gambia Colony between November 1898 

 and July 1899, my chief object was the study of its fishes, 

 so that this paper by no means professes to give a complete 

 list of the birds, though it is hoped that a record of such 

 as were noticed may be found useful to my readers. Apart 

 from A.-T. de Rochebrune's unsatisfactory ' Faune de la 

 Seuegambie^ (1884) (which is generally supposed to be 

 barely trustworthy), 1 have only been able to find two articles 

 treating solely of the avifauna of the district, namely, " Notes 

 on the Ornithology of the Gambia,'^ by Dr. Percy Hendall 

 (Ibis, 1892, pp. 215-230), which gives an annotated list of 

 birds collected within eight miles of Bathurst during a stay 

 of 21 mouths, and the second Appendix (pp. 461-483) to 

 Moloney's 'Sketch of the Forestry of West Africa' (1887), 

 which contains a list of the species known from the river, 

 with references to the literature, by Capt. Shelley. 



The majority of the birds that I observed are included in 

 these lists, but a certain number are wanting; nor did I 

 meet with all those noted by Dr. Kendall ; this, however, 

 is easily explained by the situation of the districts which I 

 explored. 



In travelling up the river to my future headquarters, the 

 island of McCarthy, we generally kept close to one bank or 

 the other, and thus had fair opportunities of observing the 

 avifauna. In the lower reaches from Bathurst to Nianimaru 

 impenetrable walls of mangroves line the shores and make 

 it very difficult to obtain a view of the interior or to watch 

 the birds. Frequently, however, large parties of Pelicans 

 and Marabou-birds crossed our course, while at low water 

 there often appeared dense flocks of Crested Cranes, which, 

 upon our approach, sailed aw^ay with their long necks and 

 unwieldly heads far outstretched, uttering their loud hoarse 

 cries. 



As we neared Nianimaru, about 100 miles up the river, 

 we left the mangroves behind and could see the actual 



