IN "WESTERN LIBERIA. 247 



port whom I am obliged for many interesting objects of 

 Natural History, has shot a straggling specimen near 

 the Cape Mount River short before our arrival at Roberts- 

 port. This specimen was the only one that people re- 

 collected to have seen in that country. As Bishop Penick 

 failed to preserve the specimen , I cannot say to which 

 species it belonged. 



Plectropterus gamhensis. 



Plectropterus gamhensis (L.) , Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 246 ; 

 — Schl. Mus. P.-B., Anseres, p. 93; — F. & Hartl. Vög. 

 0. Afr. p. 802; — Boc. Orn. d'Ang. p. 491. 



Hab. Western , Southern and Eastern Africa. 



Collected near the Fisherman Lake (Buluma) and on the 

 Marfa River. 



I have never had the opportunity to observe the man- 

 ners of this bird in the wild state. A nearly adult female 

 was shot by Sala near Buluma during my absence. It has 

 the head above and the neck grayish brown, a narrow 

 ill-defined collar round the crop , at the base of the neck, 

 the sides of the chest , axillaries , back and upper tail- 

 coverts brown with a purplish gloss, primaries and secon- 

 daries black with a purplish gloss , tertiaries , larger wing- 

 coverts and tail-feathers above beautiful steel-green , with 

 a purplish gloss under a certain light. The head under- 

 neath and sides of head anterior to the ear-coverts, the 

 throat, chest, breast, abdomen, sides of rump, under 

 tail-coverts , under wing-coverts , lesser wing-coverts above 

 and foremost feathers of the larger wing-coverts pure 

 white. 



Iris blue (Sala), bill at the point bluish white , membra- 

 neous part and bare skin in front of the head purplish , 

 only the front until above the eyes being naked, legs and 

 feet red. 



About the middle of November of the same year (1881) 

 my boys brought in aKve nine specimens out of a brood 



Notes from the Ley den IMuseura, Vol. VII. 



