Liberia <♦- 



Columha (the very rare C. unicincta — pale reddish grey below, 

 ash and lead-colour above, with dark bluish scalelike edges to 

 the feathers, white throat, bluish black tail, and blackish pinions ; 

 and the widespread C. guinea, with red upper parts marked 

 by triangular white spots) ; a Turturcena (T. iriditorques — grey, 

 copper-colour, and slate above, glossed with metallic green and 

 violet, and below wine-red and cinnamon) ; the common African 

 turtledove (Turtur semitorquatus), with the broad black patch — a 

 broken ring — round the neck; and three small doves of the 

 genera Tympanistria, Chalccpelia, and Calopelia, all of which have 

 metallic green or blue spots on the wings. Calopelia puclla has 

 a cinnamon-brown body with a pretty blue head. These little 

 peristerine doves frequent the ground a good deal, and are 

 very tame. 



Amongst the Glareoline plovers, often called Pratincoles 



(which assume so much the outward aspect of large swallows), 



is the Liberian glareole {Galactochrysea liberie). This pretty 



little bird is coloured as follows : dark ashy or olive-brown 



above, with a broad band of white over the base of the tail, 



which is black ; under-parts white or greyish white ; a streak 



of white under each eye ; face, throat, and breast dark grey, 



and a collar of bright yellow-brown round the neck ; beak 



(except black tip) scarlet, also feet. It particularly frequents 



the rocky islands and cataract reaches of the rivers, especially 



the St. Paul's River, and would seem to nest on the bare rock, 



whereon (in adjacent parts of West Africa) I have sometimes 



seen the little nestlings, three or four in number, squatting closely, 



their variegated down being coloured very much like the mottled 



surface of the rock. Biittikofer states that the greyish green 



eggs mottled with umber are laid on sand. The range of this 



bird would seem to extend eastwards as far as the Lower Niger. 



A form which Biittikofer and other collectors seem to have 



760 



