6 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



have also made use of the biological observations of von Erlanger 

 and others, in the hope that the utmost significance may have been 

 extracted from the material and data, and the report made most 

 serviceable to the widest circle of ornithologists. I have purposely 

 refrained from any account of the zoogeographic problems of the 

 territory covered by the present collection until all the birds have 

 been studied, but I intend to write of the faunistics of northeastern 

 Africa in some detail in the second volume of this report. 



Since the Frick expedition returned from Africa some 18 years 

 ago, several political changes have taken place in that continent. 

 Thus, what was the kingdom of Abyssinia is now known as Ethiopia, 

 the old British East Africa has become Kenya Colony ; German East 

 Africa is now called Tanganyika Territory and Portuguese East 

 Africa is officially known as Mozambique. In the present report the 

 most recent political names have been used throughout, but the 

 adjective "Abyssinian " has been retained and used as well as the 

 synonymous " Ethiopian." 



Of the large and valuable collection of birds made during the 

 course of the expedition considerable series have been very generously 

 presented to the United States National Museum by Mr. Frick, to 

 whom all American ornithologists interested in the growth of their 

 national collections owe a great debt of gratitude. 



ITINERARY 



The Childs Frick African expedition left New York in October, 

 1911, and arrived at Djibouti, on the Red Sea, in French Somaliland, 

 on November 22. From there the party, consisting of Mr. Childs 

 Frick, Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Mearns, Dr. Donald G. Rafferty, Mr. 

 J. C. Blick, and Mr. Alfred Bradley, went by the railroad to Dire 

 Daoua, Ethiopia, a distance inland from the coast of about 200 miles. 

 From Dire Daoua Mr. Frick and Colonel Mearns went another 200 

 miles to Adis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia, and returned by way of 

 Ankober, the ancient Shoan capital, to the Hawash River at Sadi 

 Malka, where the other members of the party had assembled a base 

 camp. From there the party proceeded through the Arussi and 

 Galla countries to Gardula, south of the Abaya Lakes in the Rift 

 Valley in southern Shoa. Near there (at Tertale) pack mules were 

 exchanged for camels, an affair that delayed the party for two 

 months, but that gave Mearns an opportunity to collect extensively 

 during the nesting season in the Gato River district. In the mean- 

 time Mr. Frick made a side trip to Lake Stefanie, which body of 

 water was completely circumferenced, and to the Omo River. Only 

 a few birds were collected on this excursion. Finally all the neces- 



