186 ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCHES 



Dryoscopus gambensis (Bp.) , Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 110; — 

 Gadow, Cat. Birds Br. Mus. VIH. p. 146. 

 Hab. Tropical West- and East Africa. 

 Collected in brushwood near Monrovia. 

 Iris brick-red , bill black , feet dark lead-color. 



Corvus scapitlatus. 



Corvus scapitlatus , Daud. Traite d'Orn. p. 233 ; — Schl. 

 Mus. P.-B. Coraces; p. 3 ; — F. & Hartl. Vög. 0. Afr. 

 p. 374; — Sharpe, Cat. Birds Br. Mus. III. p. 22; — 

 Boc. Orn. d'Ang. p. 300. 



Corvus curvirostris (Gould), Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 114. 



Hab. The whole of Africa below the Sahara ; Madagascar. 



Collected at Buluma, near the Fisherman Lake. 



Very common in the estuaries of the rivers , along the 

 sea- shore, in short wherever animal food is to be found 

 in considerable quantities. This species lives , more exclu- 

 sively than any other of its congeners, upon fish, craw- 

 fish and molluscs, which are sometimes left behind in 

 great quantities by the retiring tide, and is, moreover , very 

 fond of palm-nuts. During the palm-oil-season, from February 

 to May, as the country-people say, its meat must be » much 

 sweet", and I was obliged to shoot lots of them for our 

 boy's dinners. Now and then I tasted this »meat" myself, and 

 although I did not find it exceedingly palatable — especially 

 that of adult birds — I much preferred it to that of Horn- 

 bills, Plantain-eaters, Parrots and the like, which is very 

 tough and dry indeed. The nest of the African Rook is 

 built in the crowns of high, inaccessible cotton-trees. 



Iris chocolate-brown , bill and feet black. 



Oriolus hracliyrhy nclius. 



Oriolus brachyrhynchus, Swains. Birds W. Afr. II. p. 35 ; — 

 Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 81 5 — Sharpe, Cat. Birds Br. Mus. 

 III. p. 218. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. VII. 



