78 Mr. E. L. Layard on South-African Ornithology. 



forwards, and may serve as a foundation for the labours of 

 others/^ May those who follow, having the ''foundation," 

 build a more perfect structure ! I console myself with the re- 

 membrance that the giants of our science, with all the ad- 

 vantages which a residence in the midst of books, collections, 

 and societies can give, make mistakes. If the mighty fall, 

 what shall the pigmies do ? 



And now a few words in explanation of the species occurring 

 beyond my limits of latitude. In 1855, when I began my 

 catalogue, my intention was to stop at the Tropic of Capricorn. 

 This range would have included all these. In 1865 my la- 

 mented friend Andersson broached his intention of publishing 

 his discoveries, and in 1866 he finally settled on his scheme. 

 He then asked me to restrict my ' Catalogue ' to the Twenty- 

 eighth parallel. To this I agreed, and lent him all my manu- 

 script notes. We weeded out all species occurring beyond the 

 prescribed limit, with the exception of those given by Sir An- 

 drew Smith in his ' Report,' which we considered should be re- 

 tained. I should have alluded to this in my preface ; but it es- 

 caped my memory. The reasons were : — 1st. Most of the species 

 were known by us to have a wide range, and were likely to be 

 found, sooner or later, in my limits ; many of them had, indeed, 

 already been so found, but the exact localities were uncertain. 

 The late Mr. R. Moffat, whose headquarters were at Kuruman, 

 but who had collected about Griqua Town and along the 

 Orange River, had sent me many of them, and spoken of others 

 as being found south of the Twenty-eighth parallel, for example 

 Aedonpaena, Turdus obscur-us, Plocepasser mahali, Estrelda squa- 

 mifrons, Pyrrhulauda leucotis (all since found near Colesberg), 

 Bessornis humeralis, Crateropus jardinii, Eurycephalus anguiti- 

 mens (procured by Burchell south of 28°), Pterocles variegatus 

 and P. gutturalis (these last with vast powers of flight and very 

 migratory), and Pno/iop5 ^a/acoma. Textor erythrorhynchus and 

 Ploceus taha, I had pretty good authority for believing, had 

 certainly been found in my limits. Ploceus lathami and Estrelda 

 erythronota should have been omitted, with Malaconotus aus- 

 tralis, Merula litsitsirupa, Alauda chuana, Cinnyris talatala, 

 and Chrysoptilus bennetti ; I believed these were mostly merged 



