-* Fauna : Birds 



the upper part of the back, are pure white. The lower part 

 of the hack, wings, and tail are a dusky slate colour, rather 

 greenish in tone. The head is mainly black, with a long plume 

 starting from the nape of the neck. There is a white patch 

 round the eye, the upper throat is white, and the whole of 

 the neck is a bright chestnut-orange, except the ridge along 

 the spine, which is black. The large eyes are a bright gamboge 

 yellow with a black pupil, so that this is a very striking and 

 handsomely coloured heron. 



The birds of prey are well represented in this country, firstly 

 by the magnificent eagle Spizaetus coronatus^ a form found 

 right across Africa to Uganda and Nyasaland. According to 

 native stories (in which it figures a good deal J ), it lives 

 principally on monkeys. An interesting and handsome object 

 one of the few common birds of Liberia is the white and 

 black Fishing vulture (Gypohierax angolen$ts\ which is so abun- 

 dantly met with in the coast regions, along the rivers and the 

 estuarine creeks, where, every hundred yards or so, one of these 

 strikingly coloured birds may be seen perched on the bare 

 topmost branches of mangrove trees. The adults only of both 

 sexes assume this brilliant black and white plumage, the pinions 

 and back being chiefly black, whilst the rest of the body is 

 white. The naked skin about the face and cere is pinkish grey, 

 the feet and legs being a somewhat brighter pink. In some 

 examples the crop below the neck seems to be bare of feathers, 

 the skin being a yellowish flesh-colour. The young birds, 

 however, are simply brown, light and dark, and travellers often 

 take them for a distinct species, because they are three or four 

 years old before they completely assume the black and white 

 plumage of the adult. 



This slow change from immature to mature plumage is 



1 The Vai call this bird P6. 

 773 



