208 Mr. W. P. Lowe on the [Ibis, 



appears to be an iindescribed species. It is an enormous 

 h'wd, a pair of wbicb were seen by Mr. Lowe on more than 

 one occasion, and is remarkable for the fact that it is entireh/ 

 black, lacking the white primaries of JB. ahyssinicus and 

 B. cafer. As no example of Biicorviis with black primaries 

 is known to exist anywhere in Africa, a specimen should be 

 secured at the earliest opportunity. 



T wish to take this opportunity of expressing the great 

 appreciation felt by the authorities of the Natural History 

 Museum to Commander Dane, R.N., for so generously taking 

 Mr. Willoughby Lowe with him as naturalist on his ship. 

 Much of the material obtained by Mr. Lowe (including a 

 lai-ge collection of birds from Lagos, Southern Nigeria) still 

 remains to be worked out, but it will be apparent from a 

 perusal of this paper how much Yalual)le work Mr. Lowe has 

 accomplished, thanks very largely to the facilities afforded by 

 Commander Dane, who spared no pains or personal expense 

 to make the trip a success. The new Rail and a fine 

 Antelope have been named after him as a small recognition 

 of his kindness. 



Introduction. — By WiLLOUGHBY P. LoWE, M.B.O.U. 



Having been kindly invited by Lieut. -Commander A. Y. 

 Dane, R.N., of H.M.S. 'Dwarf,' to accompany him in his 

 gunboat to the West Coast of Africa, I found myself once 

 again off Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 25 February, 1920. 

 My first object was to try and complete the collection made 

 on my last visit of .1911 Avhilst the guest of Capt. Hardy, 

 R.N., of H.M.S. ' Mutine.' It was now arranged that I should 

 stay on the high ground at Hill Station, and from this point 

 many new additions to my former collection were made, as 

 well as new records to the list of known Sierra Leone birds. 

 Having about exhausted the birds found in the innnediate 

 neighbourhood of Freetown, it was with much interest and 

 pleasure that Commander Dane and myself left the ship early 

 on March 12 for the zoologically unexplored Rokelle River 

 and its numerous islands. We arrived atTasso Island (text- 

 fig. 3) about 11 A.M. An empty bungalow was to be had, and 



