COLLECTED ON THE COAST OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
seem to be more local, and though migratory, do not take the 
extensive range the others do. 
The greater portion of the birds to be noticed were procured 
near Accra, and within a circle of six miles round Cape Coast 
Castle. Dr. Gordon observes regarding these districts — 44 The 
country surrounding Accra is for several miles in every direction 
open, flat and dry, the greater part covered with rank reedy grass, 
with occasional patches of low brushwood ; a comparatively small 
portion is under cultivation. At a distance of about six miles to 
the westward of the town, there is a river of considerable size, and 
in the immediate vicinity there is a salt water lake, which covers 
probably ten or twelve square acres, and is the resort of myriads 
of aquatic birds.” 
44 The country around Cape Coast Castle is undulating, and as 
it were, dotted over with numbers of coarse granitic hills, of 
150 to 200 feet in height, which, with the intervening valleys, are 
covered with low brushwood, of so dense a nature, as to be in most 
parts impenetrable to man. A few occasional patches have been 
cleared for agricultural purposes, but even these (so very rapid is 
vegetation) would in the course of a couple of seasons, run into 
their original wild state, were the young bushes, as they grow up, 
not frequently burnt or cut down.” 
44 Hir undo senegalensis — (34*) — Shot, Cape Coast Castle, 5th 
July. The species is rare in this vicinity ; one couple have been 
observed about the fort during the last month, and a party of six 
or eight has been occasionally seen in the vicinity during the same 
period. The two which hovered about the fort, and which appeared 
to have a nest somewhere about the ramparts, were usually seen 
during the mornings, before the sun attained its great heat, and in 
the cool of the evening ; but the specimen now before me, was shot 
in the middle of the day, the sky being at the time rather cloudy, 
and the temperature as low as 76°. The legs are only covered to 
the knee, and the narrow black stripe along the edge of the lower 
* These numbers refer to the numbers attached to the specimens, and cor- 
respond with Dr. Gordon’s notes. 
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