Recently published Ornithological Works. 363 



31. Chapman's ' On Safari.' 



[On Safari. Big-Game Hunting in British East Africa, with Studies 

 in Bird-life. By Abel Chapman. With 170 Illustrations. London: 

 Edward Arnold, 1908. 1 vol., 8vo.] 



" Big-Game," we must allow, is the principal theme of 

 Mr. Chapman's volume, but the references to Birds and 

 the text-figures which illustrate them, taken from the 

 author's sketches, are so numerous and so attractive that 

 we are quite justified in calling it a Bird-book also. 

 " Safari " is a new word, and, we are told, " has no 

 precise equivalent in our British tongue." Yet, being in 

 daily use in East Africa and apparently meaning a " hunting- 

 expedition after big game," it is a convenient expression 

 which Mr. Chapman has taken leave to introduce into 

 '•'our common language." The author, on his three trips, 

 entered British East Africa — " probably the most glorious 

 hunting-field still extant, and certainly the most accessible'"' — 

 by the usual steam-route to Mombasa, and by the so-called 

 " Uganda Railway," which, however, does not touch Uganda 

 at all. He went straight up into the great " equatorial 

 trench," and encamped at various places in the highland 

 district which shuts off Lake Victoria from the Eastern 

 Ocean. On each occasion he spent many happy days in 

 pursuit of big game in that hunter's paradise. We will not 

 follow him into his account of the slaughter of many 

 mammals, which are not only fully described, but splendidly 

 illustrated by well-drawn pictures taken from life, but we 

 must at once call attention to his frequent remarks on the 

 bird-life of tlie country, to which, as a well-known Member 

 of the B. 0. U., he was bound to attend. These remarks are 

 scattered throughout the volume, and relate to Sun-birds, 

 Louries, Whydahs, Social Weavers, Nightjars, Rollers, 

 Shrikes, Touracos, and a host of other forms which the 

 luxuriant Avifauna of Tropical Africa possesses in such 

 abundance. Although there are numerous scientific articles 

 on the Birds of British East Africa, few ornithologists 

 (except perhaps Mr. F. J. Jackson) have given us such good 

 field-notes. Much may be learned from what Mr. Chapman 



