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Birds of Gambia. 
Bange. West Africa, Loango to Senegam'bia. (Ogilvie 
Grant). 
This bird I have never seen although I know well the 
country near the Kunchow creelf, whence came the skins in the 
British Museum, which are, as statea above, the only -specimens 
known. As it appears never to have been seen since those skins 
were sent home (some 50 years ago, I believe), one is afraid that 
it must be considered a lost species, at any rate as far as the 
Gambia is concerned, for this country is now comparatively thickly 
populated and so well known all over, that such a handsome giame- 
bira with a colouration scheme so distinctly unusual among African 
Francolins, is hardly likely to have escaped notice for so long if still 
existent. In Ogilvie Grant's Handbook, the male is described as 
ten inches in length and olive brown above with black throatJ and 
foreneck and breast olack marked with round white spots. The 
female is somewhat smaller and with the breast feathers margined 
with brown. 
Vtilopachys fuscus. STONE-PHEASANT. 
Range. Africa. Senegambia and Gold Coast to Kordofan 
and Abj'ssinia. (H.L.). 
These charming little Game-birds, whose lesemblance to' dark- 
coloured Bantam hens is really quite extraordinary, are quite common 
in the Gambia. Their general colour is chocolate -brown, more 
rufous on the under surface of the wings, the male being dis- 
tinctly darker than the female; the bill and feet are pink and they 
have a small comb of the same colour. Their size is that of 
ordinary Bantam, i.e., 10 — 11 inches long. 
They frequent the ironstone ridges, which intersect a large 
part of the more inland parts of the country^ and 'which are covered 
with bamboo growth varied heie and there with patches of thin 
scrub of other kinds. Here they are found in pairs or small parties 
of about half a dozen, which lie very closely and when disturbed 
prefer to trust to their powers of hiding rather than to their wings, 
as thej' will wait till almost trodden on before moving, and then 
they either scuttle away, exactly like frightened chickens, dodging 
in and out among' the rocks, or rise with a scuITIe and scattering 
of dust, to fly rapidly away for a few yards and then drop again 
into shelter. They never appear to perch on trees or to move- 
far away from their accustomed haunts, and they must be able to 
get along with very little wafer, at any rate during tlue dry season^ 
for then there is never any on the hills they fre^iuent and one never 
sees them like other Game-birds going to or from water. Their 
note is a low-pitched whistle. They are not at all easy birds to 
shoot, as they are only flushed with difficulty and even then they 
are usually out of sight again in a second. It always seems to 
happen, too, that when a covey gets up, one finds oneself balanced 
on one leg on a rock looking for a fairly suitable place for one's 
next step. If, too, one does not drop the bird dead it will generally 
