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ANOTHER SMALL CONTRIBUTION TO AFRICAN 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



By ERNST HARTEET. 



THE following article is based on collections made by Dr. W. J. Ansorge during 

 his third stay in the African Continent. A list of the birds collected during 

 his second stay in Africa is given by me in the ApiJendix to Dr. Ansorge's book 

 " Under the African Sun," to which I have sometimes to refer in the following 

 pages. Occasionally birds from other collections, specially some collected by Dr. 

 Felix Roth at Warri, in the Niger Coast Protectorate, have been discussed. 



Dr. Ansorge has this time crossed Africa from east to west, taking from 

 Uganda about the same route as Mr. A. B. Lloyd. Most of the localities mentioned 

 are therefore to be found in Lloyd's book " Li Dwarf Land and Cannibal Country " 

 (London, J. Fisher Unwin, 1899). 



From Mombasa Dr. Ansorge travelled to Uganda, collecting very interesting 

 birds in the sandy plain of the Athi River and at Nairobe. From Uganda proper 

 he marched westwards to Toro (or Torn, as Ansorge spells it), where a good number 

 of birds were procured. Toro is the country east of Mount Ruweuzori, and a 

 description and a map, showing some of the places where Ansorge collected, is given 

 in Lloyd's book, p. 159. At Fort George, on Lake Albert Edward, the collector 

 seems to have stayed for some time, then proceeded to " Karimia in Ussongora,* 

 Congo Free State," hence northwards to Fort Mb(5ni, or Beni, on the lower course 

 of the Semliki, or, as it is here called, Kakibi River ; then, entering the " Great 

 African Forest," i.e., the enormous primeval forest, inhabited by a Pygmy race, he 

 travelled in a north-westerly direction to the Ituri River, which at its lower portion 

 is called the Aruwinii, and sailing down the Aruwimi and Congo, reached the west 

 coast, where he found a Belgian steamer ready to sail. He thus accomplished the 

 journey in the marvellously short time of seventy-nine days from Fort George to 

 London. The collections that conld.be made on snch a record journey are of course 

 very fragmentary, but they contain some highly interesting specimens. A box with 

 probably some very good birds from East Africa is unfortunately lost, and has not 

 been traced. A longer stay in the Great Forest would doubtlessly have yielded many 

 wonderful things. On pp. 299—302 Mr. Lloyd has given some notes on the 

 " animal life in the forest," but he is not a naturalist, and his description cannot be 

 accurate, since " many species of gazelles, chimpanzee and gorilla " do not live 

 there, or have not yet been identified, and we do not believe in hyaenas in the 

 middle of the forest, although Mr. Lloyd mentions " leopards, panthers, wild cats, 

 civets, hyaenas, and reptiles." 



Of bird-life in the Great Forest Mr. Lloyd says : " Birds of every description 

 and varied hue abound, parrots undoubtedly predominating, paraquets, swifts, 

 owls, guinea-fowl, kingfishers, fish eagles, divers, kites, hornbills in great variety ; 

 pigeons, doves, honej'-birds, and all kinds of night-birds. In the daytime it is 

 delightful to sit and listen to the singing of the birds, their songs being so different 

 from the bird-songs of Europe ; some with deep musical sounds like the tolling of a 



• Spelt Ussogara by Dr. Ansorge, but on the maps I find Ussongora. This place must of course not 

 be mistaken for the country of Usagara, in German East Africa. Ansorge's Karimia is the Karimi on the 

 Isango, a continuation of the Semliki- Kakibi River, on Mr. Lloyd's and other maps. 



