Migratory Birds in British Guiana. 



By J. J- Quelch, B.Sc, (Lond.J, C.M.Z.S. 



NDER the special heading here of migratory 

 birds, are included those species that go through 

 periodic migration to the tropics from the 

 northern latitudes during the autumn and winter months. 

 Locally there is a general migration of many very different 

 forms, dependent chiefly on the dry and wet seasons, and 

 the consequent scarcity or abundance of special kinds of 

 food in different parts of the colony. Thus, on certain 

 parts of the coast, pigeons and parrots, for example, are 

 remarkably abundant at certain times (as during the 

 fruiting season), and particularly scarce at others. The 

 great storks, too, such as the Negrocop or Jabiru 

 (My6leria) , the Heri (Ciconia) , and others, which are 

 during the wet seasons so common on the flooded low 

 savannahs, where they feed chiefly either on the inse6ls 

 and reptiles driven out of the undergrowth and of the 

 surface debris, or on the fish and other aquatic forms 

 which have spread abroad from the rivers and creeks, 

 are hardly to be found when the waters have drained off 

 in the dry weather, except along the courses of the 

 streams themselves, or where isolated ponds, or lakes 

 occur And the same may be said, too, of the Ducks 

 in general ; while birds such as the Rails, Crakes, Water- 

 hens, etc., which are generally scattered among the low 

 bushy vegetation along the banks of streams passing 

 through permanently swampy distri6ts, and on the mar- 

 gins of low-lying ponds, frequently wander far over the 

 flooded savannahs among the rank and transient vege- 



