PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. II, pp. 631-649. December 28, 1900. 



A COLLECTION OF SMALL MAMMALS FROM 

 MOUNT COFFEE, LIBERIA. 



By Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. 



[Figs. 39-43-] 



In 1897 Mr. R. P. Currie spent about fourteen weeks, Feb- 

 ruary I to May 10, as the guest of the New York State Colo- 

 nization Society, at Mount Coffee, Liberia, where he made ex- 

 tensive collections in the interest of the United States National 

 Museum. Though principally occupied with entomology, he 

 secured a collection of small mammals, which proves to be of 

 particular interest. Only twenty-eight species are represented, 

 but nine of these are additions to the known fauna of Liberia, 

 and seven are new to science. That so large a proportion of 

 forms new to the region should be included in the collection is 

 especially remarkable, in view of the fact that Mount Coffee, 

 situated on the St. Paul River, about twenty-five miles from 

 Monrovia, is within the area covered by the explorations of 

 Biittikofer, Sala, and Stampfli, who obtained no less than 

 ninety species of mammals.^ 



The country in which the Currie collection was made calls 

 for no detailed description. Mount Coffee lies in a damp, 

 densely forested region, and its elevation above sea level is 

 only 400 or 500 feet. 



A few of the specimens were obtained by Professor O. F. 

 Cook, but when no collector's name is mentioned it is to be 



' vSee Jentink, Notes from the Leyden Museum, x, pp. 1-58, 1888. 



(631) 



