262 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



out to clieek the insurgents and protect the people who were still 

 on their farms. 



The fruits, in acquisition to geographical knowledge, of Mr. 

 Selous's adventures and explorations are to be found, mingled with 

 much about sporting and exciting incident, in his books: A Hunt- 

 er's Wanderings in South Africa, already mentioned; Travel and 

 Adventure in Southeast Africa (1893); Sunshine and Storm in 

 Rhodesia (1896); and in lectures to the Geographical Society and 

 periodical contributions concerning Mashonaland. 



These books abound in observations on natural history, often 

 constituting real contributions of new facts or new demonstrations 

 to the science, usually occurring incidentally in the narrative of 

 adventure, but sometimes given in more formal shape. The author 

 avows that his conclusions respecting animals are drawn from per- 

 sonal experience of the beasts, and are not influenced in any way by 

 the stories of old hunters, Dutch or native. Among these notices 

 are original observations on the giraffe and its habits, notes on 

 buffaloes and their disposition, and remarks on variations in the 

 types of South African lions. Of this animal, while some authors 

 would make three species, the author believes there is only one. 

 " As out of fifty male lion skins," he says, " scarcely two will be 

 found exactly alike in the color and length of the mane, I think 

 it would be as reasonable to suppose there are twenty species as 

 three." So in !Notes upon South African Rhinoceroses, a paper 

 read before the Zoological Society of London in June, 1881, and 

 reprinted in this volume, Mr. Selous gives his reasons for afli rul- 

 ing that there are only two species of rhinoceros in South or in 

 all Africa — the square-mouthed or white Rhinoceros simus and 

 the prehensile-lipped or black Rhinoceros hicornis — while the sup- 

 posed Rhinoceros keitloa, or blue rhinoceros of the Boers, is merely 

 a variety of the hicornis, the distinction between the two being 

 based only on differences in the relative length of the horns. An- 

 other paper from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, re- 

 printed here, is ISTotes on the South Central African Antelopes, em- 

 bodying again only the results of the author's own observations. 

 In this paper twenty-two species are described by their scientific, 

 native, Dutch, and English names, and their characteristics, habits, 

 appearance, and distinctions are indicated. 



In the preface to his Travel and Adventure in Southeast Africa 

 Mr. Selous tells how he had determined, in 1881, upon visiting the 

 ostrich farm of his friend Frank Mandy, to settle down in Africa 

 for a quiet life. Then he went home and spent a few months in 

 England. Visiting the ISTatural History Department of the British 

 Museum, he was shown by Dr. Gunther and his associate how old 



