224 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



Reichenow (i 900-1 905) will be attempted. Ornithological taxo- 

 nomy has moved rapidly since then, and an invaluable summary 

 of up-to-date nomenclature and distribution has been provided by 

 Sclater (1924-30). Excellent regional studies, published recently, 

 are those of Bates (1930) on birds of West Africa, Belcher (i 931) on 

 Nyasaland, and Priest (1933-6) on Southern Rhodesia. Works on 

 a larger scale in course of publication are by Bannerman (1930-6) 

 on tropical West Africa, subsidized by the West African govern- 

 ments, of which four volumes have appeared out of the projected 

 six, and by Chapin (1932) on birds of the Belgian Congo, remark- 

 able for its ecological approach. The serious gap in East African 

 ornithology has been filled by two volumes on the birds of Kenya 

 and Uganda edited by Sclater (1938), based on Sir Frederick 

 Jackson's notes and collections, and there will be a further work by 

 Grant and Mackworth-Praed to cover the whole of East Africa 

 from Abyssinia to the Zambesi. For the Sudan there is at present 

 only a check-list by Bowen (1926). For South Africa a new edition 

 of Stark and Sclater's (i 900-1 906) work would be valuable. An 

 interesting development, at present in its infancy, is the prepara- 

 tion of elementary books on birds primarily for the use of Africans. 

 Winterbottom in Northern Rhodesia and Fairbairn in Nigeria are 

 the pioneers in this field. 



Studies on African ornithology now take an important place in 

 the British and German scientific journals, and one local society, 

 the South African Ornithologists' Union, publishes its own periodi- 

 cal. The Ostrich. Important papers on African birds have been 

 appearing in the Revue ^oologique et Botanique Africaine, the Journal of 

 Animal Ecology, and the Journal of the Kenya and Uganda Natural 

 History Society. To the last-named Dr. van Someren has contributed 

 a series of papers on the birds of Kenya. The greater part of the 

 literature on African birds is still confined to taxonomy and geo- 

 graphical distribution, with a few scattered field notes. The study 

 of their food relations, phenology, and complete life-histories, is 

 only now beginning. Notable in this connection are recent investi- 

 gations by Moreau (1935a and b), who, at Amani, has contributed 

 data on the climatic and botanical factors of the environment, 

 with special reference to the birds. 



On the whole, the territories under British administration and 



