IN LIBERIA. 103 



144. H imanto mi s haematopus, ïemm. 



Butt. N. L. M. 1885, p. 245; id. 1886, p. 266. 



Several specimens obtained on the Jank River and the 

 Du Queah , one of them in the Mangrove about 200 yards 

 off our station at Schieffelinsville. 



145. Heliornis senegalensis (Vieill.). 

 Butt. N. L. M. 1886, p. 267. 



Tolerably rare on the Junk River , but more common 

 on the Du Queah as far up as Hill Town and still higher. 



I found most of them solitary or at least not more than 

 two together , slowly swimming on the river. They are 

 very shy and watchful , and as soon as they observe an 

 approaching canoe, they row with full speed to gain the 

 banks , where they hide themselves under the branches and 

 thick foliage of overhanging shrubs. They are very hard 

 to get on the wing , and only when they have no time 

 enough to reach the bank by swimming , they flutter hastily 

 away, keeping so close to the surface of the water as to 

 beat it continually with wings and feet. While swimming 

 they sit very deep and are therefore not easily killed in 

 that position , the less as they are difficult to get within 

 gunshot, but never, not even when I happened to catch 

 a wounded specimen with the hand, I saw it make an at- 

 tempt to dive. Its habits are much like those of our com- 

 mon Coot. On 31 Dec. I happened to shoot a male specimen , 

 sitting on a low mangrove-bush near the banks of the 

 Junk River. i 



The dress of this specimen is so much different from all 

 the other specimens of H. senegalensis before me , and on 

 the other hand so similar to that of our only specimen of 

 H. petersi from Mosambique, and the description of a 

 specimen from Chiloango in Bocage , Birds of Angola , p. 

 488, that I feel obliged to give a detailed description of 



Notes from tlie Leyden Miuseiim, Vol. X. 



