On the Birds of South-eastern Sierra Leone. 213 



XX. — On the Birds of the South-eastern Part of the Protec- 

 t urate of Sierra Leone. By Robin Kemp. With Notes by 



R. BOWDLER SlIARPE, LL.D. 



(Plate V.) 

 Ox the 7th of March, 1902, I landed for the first time in 

 Sierra Leone, since which date I have spent my whole time 

 there, broken by two periods of leave of absence in England. 

 Many birds have thus come into my hands, which 1 have 

 preserved, and concerning which I have made notes and 

 observations. 



All the specimens have been obtained and the observations 

 made in the Mendi country, or south-eastern part of the 

 Colony of Sierra Leone — the great majority of them at 

 Bo, 450 feet above sea-level, bur. a good many at Roti- 

 funk (about 50 feet above sea-level), situated on a small 

 river called the Bumpeh, which is tidal just as far as that 

 towm. The country is entirely covered with bush or small 

 forest, broken here and there by rice-farms and swamps, 

 and has six large rivers flowing in a southerly direction. 

 The staple food of the natives is rice, which is grown by 

 them in large clearings, or farms, made each year on fresh 

 land from the thick bush. After one year's crop of rice, 

 which is interspersed with cotton-plants, the clearing is 

 allowed to go back to bush-growth for seven years. These 

 farms are frequented by numbers of hard-billed birds. 



The total number of skins obtained, up to the time of 

 writing, is six hundred and twenty, comprising examples of 

 about one hundred and forty-five species. There are about 

 twenty more species which I have seen, but of which, so far, 

 I have failed to obtain specimens. 



When I commenced to collect birds here it was with the 

 idea of making a water-colour drawing of each of them, 

 which object, with the help of my mother in England, I have 

 been successful in attaining, with few exceptions. It was 

 an after-thought to skin and preserve the birds. 



The subjoined table (p. 214) shews the rainfall in con- 

 junction with the breeding-times of such birds as I have 

 been able to observe. 



SER. VIII. VOL. V. Q 



