ZOOLOGY 223 



a great disadvantage because there is a serious paucity of general 

 reference works of the kind that can be used for identifying accur- 

 ately even the common animals of Africa. No good purpose would 

 be served by giving an extensive bibliography on this subject, but 

 some of the most useful works published recently on land animals 

 and birds are noted below. 



On mammals, Captain G. G. Shortridge (1934) has brought to- 

 gether information for South- West Africa into two volumes which 

 include general biological accounts of each species, in addition to 

 taxonomic descriptions. This appears to be the only area of Africa 

 for which a recent detailed account of the mammalia exists. Dr. 

 Glover Allen, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in America, 

 is compiling a check-list of all described species of African mam- 

 mals which will be of great assistance to those making a study of 

 this subject. The recent edition of Rowland Ward's records of big 

 game animals (1935) contains much information, and for the 

 primates a valuable monograph of the African species has been 

 written by Paul Rode (1937). 



On the Reptilia and Amphibia there is no general work incorpora- 

 ting the results of recent research. Among authors on these groups, 

 Mr. H. W. Parker of the British Museum (Natural History) and 

 Dr. A. Loveridge of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Har- 

 vard, have written numerous papers on collections from special 

 areas. Dr. Loveridge was formerly resident in Kenya, working at 

 the Coryndon Memorial Museum, and has recently visited East 

 Africa again for scientific purposes. Important among his recent 

 publications are the series of scientific results of an expedition to 

 rain-forest regions in East Africa (1935-7), ^^^ a catalogue of 

 African reptiles and amphibia in the Field Museum of Natural 

 History (1936). 



Ornithology occupies a peculiar position. Since birds are com- 

 paratively easy to identify and observe, their study is often taken 

 up by amateurs, and popular interest is beginning to result in the 

 publication of local avifaunal works, usually of a good scientific 

 standard. As a rule they are arranged in systematic order, but 

 unlike the floras, they contain a mass of information on general 

 biology. With the multiplication of local studies it is unlikely that 

 any counterpart of the work on the whole bird fauna of Africa by 



