144



Dr. E. Hopkinson ;



BIRDS OF THE GAMBIA.*


By E. Hopkinson, D.S.O., M.B.


( Travelling Commissioner , Gambia).


The Gambia, although the smallest of the British West

African possessions, has a large and varied bird population. This is

partly the result of its geographical position, and partly of its

topography— a mighty river and its banks. The first means that it

is the object (or on the line of march) of two double migrations, one

from the north in October with its return in the following March or

April, the other from the south at the beginning of the rains, June

or July, of birds from the more equatorial parts, which come to breed

in Senegambia, of which great territory the little Gambia may be

said to form the core, at any rate from a bird’s point of view. These

visitors from the south leave us after the rains, their departure being

spread out over several months — October to January. Our normal

resident population is therefore increased at these times, though the

increase due to our northern visitors is usually a matter of days or

weeks only, the great majority of the migrants passing on to a more

remote destination. The rainy season influx, on the other hand,

lasts the whole of that season, our visitors then coming in to settle

for the definite business of breeding.


Here, realising the difficulty of compressing an account of our

varied avifauna within the limits of a single article, I must content

myself with notes on the commoner or more conspicuous members of

the different orders and families which occur within the limits of the

Gambia, although the result is nothing much more than a list.


If the average man here were asked what was the typical

Gambia bird, the answer would in practically every case be the

“ Bush-fowl ” (Francolinus bicalcaratus), a bird widely distributed

throughout N.W. and W. Africa, for in Africa most people’s interest

in the birds is sporting rather than ornithological, and this game

bird comes easily first in most men’s minds, providing as it does

good sport and good “ chop.”


The Game Birds therefore will form a good starting-point.



* [Reprinted from the Journal of the African Society, 1917.]



