648 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
screw; at other times some more conspicuous object would attract one’s atten- 
tion, and in a moment a number would gather around it, hovering like so many 
butterflies with their feet patting the surface. As the days became somewhat 
oppressively hot under the tropical sun, it seemed to me that the numbers of 
petrels became distinctly less in the warmer hours of the day, when possibly 
many of the birds may have been resting on the surface of the sea. One that I 
watched, at length flew far off to one side of the steamer and twice alighted on 
the water, sitting high like a miniature gull, but at other times I never saw one 
on the surface resting. Lowe secured a male on January 20, 1911, that came 
aboard his vessel off Nana Kru, Liberia, attracted by the light at night (Banner- 
man, 1912). Since this is the season when these birds should be nesting it may 
be that a certain number, immature or barren birds, do not go to the antarctic 
islands with the main body, but remain in more equable climes. 
No doubt certain of the shearwaters will be found to occur off the Liberian 
coasts, but records are lacking. 
PELECANIFORMES 
PHALACROCORACIDAE Cormorants 
Phalacrocorax africanus africanus (Gmelin). Long-tailed Cormorant 
Pelecanus africanus Gmelin, Syst. Nat., ed. 18, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 577, 1789: Africa. 
Length about 22 inches; black, the upper back, shoulders, and wing coverts more or less 
grayish brown; bill yellow, its ridge brown. Tail more than two-thirds the length of wing. Most 
of Africa, south of the Sahara. 
Since it lives on fish, this is a frequenter of streams. Buttikofer (1885) re- 
garded it as ‘‘tolerably common”’ along rivers and creeks, generally perching on 
low trees. Chubb (1905) records a specimen from Boporo on the St. Paul’s 
River. At our camp on the Du we occasionally saw a single bird following the 
stream or swinging wide over the cleared area near. 
ANHINGIDAE Darters 
Anhinga rufa rufa Lacépéde and Daudin. African Darter 
Plotus rufus Lacépéde and Daudin, in Buffon’s Hist. Nat., 18 mo, Didot ed., oiseaux, vol. 17, 
p. 81, 1802: Senegal. 
A slender, long-necked species, length about 35 inches; crown, neck, and throat dark brown, 
a white band on cheeks and sides of neck, a shorter one on chin; a white spot at base of jaw; 
elsewhere black with greenish reflections. Africa south of the Sahara. 
Like the Cormorant this is a frequenter of streams, in which it secures its 
prey — fish. Biuittikofer, who made extensive explorations of the rivers and 
creeks about Cape Mount, found it there throughout the year, as well as on the 
lower courses of the Junk. Possibly it is less common along the smaller swifter 
streams of the interior for we did not identify it. 
