IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 249 



Marfa- and Sugary River. They are always found either 

 in pairs or in small flocks of three or four pairs together , 

 along the waterside , where the retreating tide has left be- 

 hind masses of small Crustacea and Molluscs , upon which 

 they principally feed. They are exceedingly watchful and 

 generally fly off long before the huntsman has crept close 

 enough to fire on them , so that to shoot this Duck always 

 costs a large amount of time and patience. Although I had 

 much opportunity of observing these Ducks , I never found 

 them sitting on trees or even the Mangrove-clumps along 

 the rivers. On the 9^^ of September 1881 I received an 

 adult living specimen from a Native , who had caught it , 

 as he said , on a nest with seven eggs , which latter un- 

 fortunately were eaten up by the man. Strange enough , 

 this specimen , when dissected , proved to be a male ! A 

 few days afterwards I was brought to the nest, forming 

 a kind of cup in dry grass under some shrubs , close to 

 the mouth of the Grand Cape Mount River. 



Seven young , covered with down , about a week old , were 

 caught together in a grassy plain near the sea-coast, by 

 my boys , the 1 Q^^ of August. Iris brown , bill bluish , feet 

 lead-color. 



Adult: Iris dark grayish brown, bill black, with a 

 bluish white cross-band behind the point , feet lead-color. 



Sterna cantiaca. 



Sterna cantiaca (Gm.) , Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 255 ; — 

 Schl. Mus. P.-B., Sternae, p. 5; — Boc. Orn. d'Ang. 

 p. 512. 



Hab. Europe and the West Coast of Africa, till down 

 to the Cape of Good Hope. 



Collected on the beach near Robertsport. 



One specimen shot from two , which I saw flying above 

 the surf near Robertsport, on the 3>"d of December. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black , with yellowish horn-colored 

 tip ; feet black. 



Notes from tlie rjeyden Miuseum', "Vol. "VII. 



