CHAPTER XXIV 



FAUNA: BIRDS 



THE birds, like the mammals of Liberia, are not as varied 

 and abundant as are those of the open countries of 

 Tropical Africa — that is, bird life is not so obvious to 

 the eye as, for example, in Senegal, in East Africa, and on the 

 Great Lakes. This is, no doubt, partly because the forest 

 conceals so much of the vertebrate fauna. 



. The ostrich, though it would seem to inhabit the more 

 arid regions to the north of the Upper Niger and Senegal, 

 probably comes nowhere near the frontiers of Liberia, though it 

 is not infrequently kept as a pet and a curiosity by the Fula 

 chiefs on the not far-distant plateau of Futa Jallon. 



Amongst noteworthy gallinaceous birds there is the Agelastes 

 guinea-fowl, which is confined in its distribution to the forest 

 coast belt of West Africa, between the Niger on the east and 

 Sierra Leone on the west. The nearest relation of this guinea- 

 fowl, perhaps, is the still more primitive gallinaceous type, Phasidus 

 (confined to the Gaboon and the countries to the north of 

 the Lower Congo). The Agelastes, or white-necked guinea-fowl 

 {A. meleagroides), is the smallest of that gallinaceous sub-family, 

 and is not much larger than a bantam-fowl. In the adults the 

 head is quite bare, and covered with bright red skin ; but in 

 the females, and still more in the young, there is a tendency 

 for the head to be sparsely feathered with white or greyish white 

 plumes, especially up the back of the neck and along the top 



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