IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 233 



comes salt and is then populated for the most part by a 

 sea- and brack-water-fauna. These birds , however stupid 

 they at first seem to be, are very difficult to approach 

 within gun-shot. They feed upon small crustaceous animals. 



The measurements of these birds are as follows: Bill 

 from front 5,4 cm., from gape 6,5, wing 20, tail 11, 

 tarsus 8 , middle toe 3,3. 



Iris yellow , bill in live birds black , base of bill , eye- 

 brows, legs and feet pale yellowish green. 



Glareola megapoda. 



Glareola megapoda , G. R. Gray, List Spec. Birds Br. Mus., 

 Ill, p. 62 (1844). 



Glareola megapodia, F. & Hartl. Vög. 0. Afr. p. 636. 



Glareola nuchalis liberiae, Schl. Notes Leyd. Mus. 1881, 

 p. 58. 



Hab. Liberia; Niger. 



A large series collected on the St. Paul's River , the 

 Fisherman Lake and the Marfa River. 



This fine Pratincole is very closely allied to G. nu- 

 chalis , described by Gray , after a specimen from the up- 

 per Nile (P. Z. S. 1849, p. 63; Aves, pi. IX), but con- 

 stantly distinguished by its r u f o u s instead of w h i t e collar. 

 When obtaining the first specimen , I thought it to be a 

 local race of G. nuchalis {G. megapoda being unknown to 

 me) , and Prof. Schlegel , in his above cited note on the 

 zoological researches in Liberia , mentions it as G. nuchalis 

 liberiae. While preparing this paper , I fancied my bird 

 might be G. megapoda , the type of which » an immature 

 bird in rather bad condition" is still preserved in the Bri- 

 tish Museum, and which is believed to be distinct from 

 G. nuchalis by Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub , 1. c. Having, 

 however, neither a specimen of G. megapoda nor of G. 

 nuchalis at my disposal , I wrote to Mr. Sharpe about the 

 matter , who kindly answered me as follows : » The type of 

 G. nuchalis is in the Museum still. It is like the plate , 

 Notes from the Leyden ]Museu.ixi, "Vol. VII. 



