IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 251 



breeding plumage amongst the flock — I skinned but five 

 specimens which are now all before me. The whole flock 

 was sitting on a sand-bank at low water , rising like a cloud 

 into the air after my first shot with great noise, and 

 pouncing down upon their wounded comrades so that I 

 was enabled to discharge shot after shot from my dancing 

 canoe. 



Iris dark brown, bill black, feet sooty brown. 



Rhynchops flavirostris. 



Rhyncliops flavirostris, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. III. p. 358; 

 — Schl. Mus. P.-B., Sternae, p. 40 ; — Boc. Orn. d'Ang. 

 p. 515. 



Rhynchops orientalis , Rüpp. Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. p. 257. 



Hab. Western and Eastern Africa. 



Collected near Robertsport. 



I have seen the Scissor-bills during the summer of 1881 

 at the same places as the above mentioned Terns , but never 

 higher up in the Interior. They were always found in pairs , 

 which are easily killed, as one, as soon as the other has 

 fallen by a shot and is left for a moment on the ground , 

 flies round its fallen comrade until it is killed by another 

 shot. A pair of adult birds in breeding plumage was shot 

 on the 17tli of August, another, semi-adult pair on the 

 26^11 of September. The bills of the latter were not yet 

 fully developed, though exactly of the same shape as in 

 the adult birds; they are coral-red with blackish tips. The 

 upper parts are sooty brown as in the adult, but most 

 of the feathers shghtly tipped with whitish ; underneath 

 white, front and sides of head strongly tinged with brown. 

 Iris black , feet coral-red. 



Iris of adult birds dark brown, bill coral-red, point 

 orange-yellow , feet coral-red. 



P lotus Levaillantii. 

 Plotus Levaillantii, Licht. Cat. Doubl. Mus. Berol. p. 



Notes from the Leyden Musevim, Vol. VII. 



