Birds of Gambia. 
295 
attractions they also help largely to fill the pot and in most plaoes 
provide the staple meat dish of the Protectorate official's daily menu. 
An old bird, however, is tasteless and toug-h, and one of any age 
shot just outside a native village may be distinctly nasty as 'oirds 
wliicli take (o such haunts feed a good deal on thef nefuse) 'thev 
find in such places, but a Bush fowl, especially young one, straight 
out of the rice-fields or ground-nut farms is sweet-fleshed and ten- 
der, — altogether excellent eating, while a cheeper literally melts in the 
mouth 
Native names are " Wallo," in Mandingo and " Ntchoker " in 
iJoloii'. Both names are in common use and indeed the birds are 
nearly as ,well known here and as f oquently called by their Mandingo 
name, as by that commonly given them in English, " Bush- fowl'," 
and one notices how quickly those who shoot pick up enough of the 
native language to aid their pursuit, and become au fail/ with 
such phrases as " Wallo assiafca le jang," or " Wallo be minto " 
(" Are theie plenty of Bush fowl her-e? Where are the bush fowl?"), 
long before tliey kn<jw now to say "How do yo(U do" properly 
or even to ask their way home in the language. 
Bush-fowl have two typical haunts in this country — (1) the 
comparatively hig'h-lying corn and ground-nut fields and the thin 
bush round them; and (2) the low-lying rice-fields in the swamps 
ana the long grass which borders them. During the rains and 
earlier months of the dry season the more elevated and therefore 
drier situations are the favourite haunts, though when the rice ripens 
(about November) numbers flock there in the early mornings and 
evenings to Teed, returning to the farms during the day, but as the 
dry season advances, they migrate gradually towards the swamps and 
water and by the later montlis the majority have left the hig'lien:- 
girounfi and are to be found on the swamps, by now mjostly dry, 
'and especially during the very hottest months among the clumps of 
fmall bushes and tree? which generally border these swamps. They 
are usually met with in coveys of from 6 to 10, or at the be- 
ginning and end of the dry season in pairs. Their feeding hours are 
•mostly the mornings and evenings, for during the heat of the day 
they rest in cover, taking advantage too during the hot months of 
the shade of trees and bushes. When the crops are ripe, they feed 
mainly on ground-nuts, corn, rice and other products of man's labours, 
but also on other seeds, various berries and insects, which constitute, 
their diet for the remaining nine months of the year. Some in- 
dividuals, however, prefer the easier life and more easily obtained 
food supply to be found in the immediate neighbourhood oif the 
native villages, and here become scavangers and live chiefly on the 
refuse ana filth, they find in such places. 
Bush fowl breed from ab(jut Aqgust to November, laying 
white or pale buff unmarked eggs in shallow depressions on the 
ground among the long gi-ass, usually in the open, but sometimleis 
under the shelter of some straggling bush or tree. During the 
