Birds of the Gold Coast Colony i^c. 283 



The climate of the Hinterland is far better than that of 

 the coast and the forest-region, and the fever is there of a 

 mild form. The rainy season is from July to November, 

 commencing in Ashauti a month earlier. By the end of 

 October signs of the dry season appear, and then only 

 occasional showers are experienced. Towards the end of 

 November the Harmattan sets in, increasing in strength in 

 December, and lasting till tlie middle of February ; under its 

 dry and searching influence everything becomes dried up, 

 and the birds leave the open country and seek shelter in the 

 belts of woodland along the streams and watercourses. 



Near Gambaga many important forms of bird-life, 

 including several rare Desert-Larks, such as Heliocorys 

 modesta and Mirafra erythropygia, were obtained, both in 

 the district itself and to the northward near the Anglo- 

 French boundary, as also in the little-known country around 

 Salaga. 



In our Hinterland collection, all the forms are either 

 Senegambian or Abyssinian. There is hardly a forest- 

 species represented in it, as the list will shew. With the 

 exception of the forest-region, it is difficult to define any 

 exact areas of distribution for West- African birds. The fact 

 of species from North-eastern Africa being found right 

 up in the Gold Coast Hinterland shews that no serious 

 obstacle to a wide distribution exists throughout the little- 

 known countries directly south of the Sahara, which form, 

 as it were, a roadway between the Nile and Senegambia. 

 According to Lieutenant Joalland of the French Mission to 

 Lake Chad, the country about Zinder, in Northern Haussa- 

 land, has an abundant supply of water, the region along the 

 northern shore of Lake Chad is barren and absolutely 

 devoid of food, while Kanem is a series of sand-dunes and 

 oases. 



A system of rivers must influence to a great extent the 

 distribution of birds. This is readily perceived on watching 

 the banks and vicinity of the African rivers, for there 

 numbers of birds may be seen congregated and continually 

 moving up and down their courses. These migration-move- 



