BIRDS FROM THE SULYMAH RIVER. 



NOTE VII. 

 ON THE COLLECTIONS OF BIRDS, 



SENT BY THE LATE A. T. DEMERY FROM THE 

 SULYMAH RIVER (W. AFllICA) 



J. BUTTIKOFER. 



19 



The collecting work of our much lamented african na- 

 turalist, Mr. A. T. Demery, having been abruptly stop- 

 ped last year by his unexpected death (N. L. M. 1891 , 

 p. 248), it will be of no little importance to publish a 

 list of the species of birds, obtained during his sojourn 

 on the banks of the Sulymah River , the more as Demery 

 is the first and hitherto the only collector who explored 

 this part of the vast country between Grand Cape Mount 

 and the Isle of Sherbro. His chief station was Juring, a 

 native town on the left bank of the Sulymah River , about 

 10 miles off the sea-coast. From Juring he made several 

 excursions, especially higher up the river, which latter is 

 practicable for row-boats and canoes much farther inland 

 than most of the rivers in Liberia. The whole country be- 

 tween the Mahfa Reiver (Grand Cape Mount) and Sherbro 

 is rather flat and seems to have about the same aspect as 

 the country round the Fisherman Lake. High forest, in- 

 terrupted by savannahs , extensive reed-jungles and large 

 swamps cover the alluvial plain , which is crossed by 

 the Mannah- i), the Sulymah- and the Gallinas River , 

 and, especially in its western or northern part, by an 

 immense net of mangrove-skirted creeks, while, a few mi- 



1) The Mannah River is, since 1887, the actual frontier between Liberia 

 and the British Colony of Sierra Leone. 



Notes from the Ley den M-useum, Vol. XIV. 



